Common Curtsey
by pennytree
Summary: Life as a new witch only gets messier. Her host, the Original Hybrid, is wooing her for magic. One of her mentors, a wildcard Gemini siphoner, tosses lessons at the class that never end well for her. Bonnie Hopkins left normal behind as a favor to her grandmother, but good intentions have never gone so wrong. A/U: Bonnie, Kai, Klaus, Grams, Abby, Mikaelsons, Parkers, and others.
1. Chapter 1

_**COMMON CURTSEY  
**_

 _ **Ch. 1**_

Aside from the matriarchs, patriarchs, elders, and a long line of other titles Bonnie quit trying to remember, there were two figures that took prominence on the morning they all first assembled for lessons on their debut, in the enormous courtyard of the French Quarter compound that housed the Mikaelsons.

"Remember your three Ps." The woman came across all feline, green eyes slitted and alert, the lines of her body sleek and graceful, with every strand of her red curls perfectly in place and her nails sharp and manicured. She wore her magic like a royal cloak, for all the world to feel. "Power, politics, predictability. Keep them guessing."

"I always add a fourth," came the mellow, deep tones of the man standing beside her. He reminded Bonnie of a Doberman, long, lean, and intelligent. When she concentrated, she sensed his magic, subtle but strong. "Pathos. Your emotions. Other people's. Study them, know them, and most importantly, _experience_ them. We're witches. Emotions are as intrinsic to our magic as oxygen is to our physical bodies."

"Not what I was taught," came the insolent voice. "Emotions make you dumb. Dumb gets you killed."

Along the line of the young witches that stood before the pair, the one who'd spoken out of turn was tall, her blonde curls swept messily over to one side. The fleeting glance shared between Genevieve and Vincent gave Bonnie bad vibes.

When Genevieve took a step forward, magic surged towards the blonde briefly, and then towards the fountain a yard away. The water there hissed, steam rising over its surface.

Thirteen heads stared cautiously. One paid it no mind. The same one that Genevieve neared.

"Olivia, how do you feel?" she asked.

The blonde shrugged.

Genevieve spared a hard stare down the line.

"None of you," she said. "Can interrupt. Not a peep, not a twitch. Not while Olivia needs her first proper lesson."

"Genevieve," Vincent moved forward now, the guard dog look still in place but now tinged with doubt.

"You, too," his partner hissed, before she leaned in to Olivia. "Would you care if you got hurt right now?"

Olivia gave a bored look back.

"Can't summon the energy to talk, can you?" Genevieve tilted an elegant head to the fountain. "Go dip your fingers into that fountain."

Still with that air of total indifference, Olivia trudged over towards the growing steam.

"Don't stop her!" warned Genevieve.

Bonnie had been pushed into a heritage spanning the length of several millennia, but leaving her old human life behind didn't mean she'd tossed her humanity aside with it. Sprinting out from the line to stop Olivia, she was beyond grateful to find two others, joining in dissent. Together, they reached the blonde and dragged her away from the hiss of water that bubbled violently mere inches from their skin.

Something breezed past Bonnie's cheek. In the next second, Liv stumbled and shook her head as if to clear it, and the water abruptly ceased its restless lapping. Mist continued wafting in the air near her head, as Bonnie chanced a look and found Genevieve and Vincent both, with identical inscrutable smiles.

"Congratulations, Olivia," Genevieve stated coolly. "Your lack of emotions nearly caused you third-degree burns."

Then she turned away.

Vincent waved a hand before the fountain, clearing the mist and soothing away the remaining bubbles until the surface of the water turned calm again.

"Genevieve shut it off," he explained in deep, patient tones. "Your emotions. It's a difficult spell to master. For a reason. Pathos is not about embracing being a basketcase, ladies. We have the ability to regulate our emotions. That's not a witch thing, just part and parcel of being members of the human race. Without that, we're looking at anarchy."

When they rejoined the line, Bonnie tried to ignore the way the blonde kept glancing over. Mainly because she wasn't sure herself if that whole display was meant more to teach or embarrass. Olivia didn't come across as the forgiving type.

"There's thirteen of you," Genevieve called out. "We have three separate casting rooms for our Initiates. Decide how you want to split that."

The others were quick to pair off. As a child, she couldn't remember moments in PE where she'd been the last man standing, last one picked, in need of a partner that usually ended up being the coach. No, she'd always been coordinated, on top of being sporty, so she'd been lucky enough to avoid that distinction. Today wasn't the day for her to finally get a taste of it.

Facing her were the other pair of witches who'd helped pull Olivia back from the fountain, as well as Olivia herself. They drifted together, smiles hesitant and fleeting.

-X-x-X-x-X-

 _Her mom and dad had moved a lot. Never in one place too long, never an explanation for why. But she'd learned the tells, as she got older. Her parents always looked tired; the weeks leading up to a move, that tired gave way to something else that eventually, she learned to place as panic._

 _Mom worked long hours as a nanny. The days off were what Bonnie lived for. Abby Hopkins took her on long walks and when they got home, showed her the best way to prune the small garden in their terrace that grew edible bulbs and useful herbs. Those were the days she had her mom, fully. Dad meanwhile, had an office at home, so technically, she always had him, except he stayed behind the closed doors of his office, a headset attached to his ear and the bright glare of his dual monitors turning his eyes bleary by the time dinner rolled around._

 _But he took her to school in the mornings, picked her up in the afternoons to bring her straight back home, and she rarely left it. Her grades were good. She took swimming lessons but nothing else. Her parents never ever let her do sleepovers at anyone's house, although they did let her bring her friends over, every time she asked. Only, the older she grew the more it struck her as odd how closely her parents monitored those visits. They became the weird parents, and Bonnie grew to resent it._

 _When she was old enough to know better, she finally asked. Why they were so nosy, her parents. Her friends never gave anyone problems. And she was lucky enough that no matter where they lived, she always made new ones. Her parents never answered her questions, including the one she learned to stop wondering about: why they never stayed in one place longer than a year._

 _It went on this way for a time, even past high school, when she'd finally reached the age most kids would've gone somewhere far away to learn how to function on their own._

 _And she was still there, under the watchful eye of her mom and dad._

 _Until the day she was home alone, for once._

 _Then came the door knock._

 _"I'm Stefan. Your grandmother sent me."_

 _But caution had been ingrained in her by both her parents from an early age. She left him to stand outside on the porch, while she called Grams._

 _Five minutes later, he sat in the living room, simple, crisp words falling from his mouth that on the surface she understood. Yet it took some time for her mind to fully grasp._

 _"Can you come with me to Mystic Falls? There's a ceremony you're needed for. Sheila can explain the rest."_

 _The irony was how he presented it as a question. As if she had a choice about it, now that he'd popped holes across the bubble of her life._

-X-x-X-x-X-

Daytime, Bonnie liked it better.

Under a bright hot sun, she sweltered as she walked along Decatur to find her way to iconic buildings, shops, and eateries. At the _Cafe Du Monde_ , sitting outdoors alone beneath a green and white awning, partially hiding herself from the passing crowd behind a thick white column, it was easy to pretend all she cared about was her beignet and _cafe au lait_.

The view of horse-drawn carriages clopping along Jackson Square gave her ideas about extending the facade of normal. Amidst the summer greenery stood sun-dappled historical buildings with secrets. In the distance, the towering center spire of St. Louis Cathedral beckoned. Nearby, at the cemetery, the grave of a voodoo priestess called for a visit.

She could go, play tourist, ignore the sense of crawling along her skin and that new tingle in her blood-her recently developed extra sense-that whispered, _they're watching._

In the day, she was more careful. Her thoughts were clearer, meaning less chance of a misstep.

Night contained far more shadows and the risk of having them spread to corners of her mind she'd rather stayed lit. Night gave her too many glimpses of the mass of sweaty bodies slithering together like a giant snake, winding their way through narrow streets and pulsing, bright bars and restaurants, teeming with the beat of trombones and sax and piano and above all of that, the happy chatter of ignorant souls.

Before that fateful knock on her door, she would have been a part of that crowd, stumbling her way along with the clueless mob.

Sheltered all her life by parents who'd done their best to protect her from the dangers of magic, and now here she was, under the tutelage of several allied covens, being taught how to explore nature, spirits, grimoires, and all things mystical.

Her phone buzzed.

 _Just checking in. Where are you? - Gen_

 _Grabbing pastries. Will bring some for everyone._

 _Come back soon. Training starts in an hour. Guest tutor starting today._

Her old sheltered life had started looking rosier in hindsight, now that her new freedom offered more restrictions and rules.

-X-x-X-x-X-

 _Mystic Falls held sleepiness to it, sleepiness and, upon closer look, secrets._

 _Her mom accompanied her and Stefan. They walked together, hand in hand, following him through a bright, manicured lawn and the double doors of a creamy mansion, only to be cloaked in gloom once inside. Dark curtains, shadowed faces, and a lot of black leather jackets. Facing them at every turn._

 _Except for one. A tall man in a hoodie, strolling in past an arch, his face tilted up in a smile. The darkness rested in his eyes, just a hint of it, as they swept her from head to toe, assessing, before they turned dismissive._

 _The blonde woman in leather turned to her equally-leathered companion, his sharp blue eyes glazed over with boredom._

 _"How adorable," she said, loud enough to carry around the massive room so everyone could hear the posh tones of her accent dripping with disdain. "Your brother brought along a little lamb."_

 _Her mom's grip on her hand tightened, at the same moment the blonde stumbled, grabbing her head, groaning. The drink she'd carried tumbled to the floor, red spilling over the once-spotless white of a plush rug._

 _Bonnie was confused, and stayed that way, even when Grams appeared, her familiar face calm and soothing, as she touched her mom's shoulder._

 _"Abby," was the only thing her grandmother said._

 _Whatever was wrong with the blonde, went away._

 _Even more baffled, Bonnie followed her grandmother and mother both as they disappeared into the next room, ignoring the way everyone tracked them the entire length of the room. It wouldn't do here to try to grab her mother's hand again, before all these unlined faces that looked only a few years older than her own, but with eyes that spoke of far too much_ _ **knowing**_ _._

 _But Stefan was at her back and they were nearly out._

 _A blond man with stubble on his jaw who'd been lounging by the bar cabinet glided over to block their way._

 _"Won't you introduce your new comrade, Stefan?"_

 _The rush of impatience swept over her fiercely, in the face of all these strangers and their schoolyard bullying tactics._

 _"I have a mouth," she blurted, shouldering past him, grabbing Stefan's hand. "I can introduce myself. Bonnie Hopkins. Excuse you."_

 _As she pulled Stefan along, the sound of a low chuckle reached her._

 _"Little lamb has claws," came the drawl._

 _From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the man in a hoodie, tipping his own glass to her before he took a sip from his drink, and turned his gaze away in dismissal once more._

* * *

 ** _A/N:_**

Hi guys. So the Kaleidoscope one-shot...this is it. Grew too long. TBH, I got carried away with Klonnie/Bonkai. No plans to make this one last very long (I always say that and never fail to be wrong). Also, I did a thing with a cover because it's Saturday night, I'm flu-ey, phlegmy, and it was more fun than watching murder documentaries the hubby keeps putting on.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Ch. 2**_

"He's late," muttered Genevieve, drumming her fingers on the desk impatiently. "Wait here."

Bonnie and the others exchanged glances.

As soon as Genevieve disappeared through the door, the lock clicked shut, and the air before it convulsed.

" _Fi_ nally."

A tall form materialized before their eyes, smiling as he angled his head at them. "Thought she'd never leave."

The way he sauntered over to inspect them gave them all pause, except Liv, whose eyes were turned to the ceiling as she shook her head. "Why me?" she muttered. "Why **you**?"

"Cloaking and kicking ass is my specialty? And hey, they twisted my arm, sis. What can I say? My reputation precedes me. So who's ready to learn the good stuff, hmm?"

The guest mentor was Liv's oldest brother, jarring Bonnie's expectation that the Mikaelsons knew what they were doing here. What she'd seen and heard from Kai Parker up until then hadn't given her the impression that he was made of teaching material.

Liv wasn't any happier, but then in that first session, after he drilled spells into their heads on how to survive against all manner of attacks, barely giving any of them time to get oriented, Kai sat behind the desk at the front of the room, and said, "Now we practice. Put your big kid pants on, it's about to get real."

Among the grim faces, Liv was the only one smiling.

At the far corner of the room, two large, hulking forms appeared, growls preceding the fangs they bared, already dripping with blood while their black-red eyes turned greedy.

Liv and Luka both dropped them to their knees with aneurysms, before Bonnie could even begin the chant in her head.

Then another vampire appeared, this time behind Davina, snatching the witch by her shoulders and yanking back her head to bare her neck. Bonnie raised her hand and tossed the vampire off, keeping him in place on the wall, feeling a sense of exhilaration.

That died, quickly, when large cold hands grabbed her own waist. The wiry vampire at her back moved quick, sinking his fangs inside her neck. Pain erupted, turned her lightheaded as she struggled to free herself. He was vicious, snarling, digging past her carotid, grazing the nerve that blurred her vision, as he sucked away her essence.

Through a haze of pain and disbelief, she saw Kai shake his head in disappointment, still at the desk. Her friends were yelling but she could only vaguely register it.

"Somebody should really do something about that," he said.

Bonnie lifted her hand, unable to chant, or push, as the vampire slurped and tore more skin.

Her nails scraped his face, the touch of his cold skin a balm to her fingers that bled heat. Fire grew beneath her hand, suffused the vampire's face and licked greedily around his head and the rest of his body.

She fell on the floor, to her knees.

Two vampires lay on the ground, near Luka and Davina. Liv still tussled with hers, breaking bones in symphony.

Covering her jagged mess of a neck, Bonnie glared at Kai and the ever present mockery he offered never faded, not once as she swept a gaze around the room and let the fire spread from one vampire to the next. Their screams filled the air. The others lifted them into the air, opening the lone window with their magic, and tossed them out. Their smoky remnants soon stained the polished courtyard tiles of the Mikaelson compound.

Still crouched on the ground, still glowering at Liv's brother, Bonnie soon registered that her friends were staring at her.

"What?" she asked in a low, horrible voice she couldn't recognize.

Liv nodded back. "You're packing heat."

She looked at herself, just now registering flames coating her back and shoulders, flicking idly along her arms. Even her hair was on fire.

She felt none of it.

When she glanced at Kai again, his boots rested on the desk as he leaned back, smug. His soles on his boots started smoking, a second before flames encased them. It cost him nothing to put them out with a wave of his hand, but what mattered more was that she saw then-the mockery in his gaze, finally displaced.

Genevieve and Vincent returned. After a short, tense exchange, the four novices watched Kai tuck his hands into his jeans and shrug, tossing them a careless look as he ambled a lazy path out of the room.

"Til next time, newbies."

-X-x-X-x-X-

 _The ceremony wasn't on a stage, in a brightly lit room, with an audience in attendance. No, it happened with less than a dozen near-strangers circled around her, outside the perimeter of a chalked-in pentagram, inside of which she, her mom, and her grandmother stood, holding hands._

 _They'd given her lines to repeat. It almost felt like a play-weird and lacking any kind of fun-that random people had decided to put on at night in the middle of an idle graveyard, cracked and chipped tombstones littered around their feet._

 _Right in the middle of their recitation, it started. Wind howled, leaves flew, the boom of thunder nearby, bolts of lightning sparking even closer._

 _Nobody cared._

 _Her body changed, too. Something inside her answered to the storm raging outside, pooling heat beneath her skin._

 _Wild anticipation grew, and along with it-the sense of belonging. Rightness._

 _She was caving into it, when someone squeezed her hand. Bonnie happened to look up to catch the blood seeping from every opening of both her mother and grandmother's faces. They both watched her, shaking their heads, telling her to let it go. Earlier, they'd primed her to push-and her reaction to that had been to wonder, out loud, if they meant like in childbirth, or with bowel movements. But they'd lacked proper explanations and only told her to_ _ **listen**_ _. She would know what to do when the time came._

 _And there was something now-the sense of her own heated blood needing to burst out of her skin. It warred with the greater need to take hold of the air around her and bend everything to her will, before she melted. Or died._

 _But Grams and her mom were yelling now, bleeding. Urging her to let go._

 _She tried, closed her eyes, and pushed. Wondering if the boiling wetness she felt trailing down her own face meant it was working. If her blood scorched her cheeks._

 _The thought made her angry. Her eyes flew open, met with Klaus Mikaelson eyeing the clearing in fascination while he dodged debris in the air. Stefan had moved closer, but still, even he did nothing to stop the 'ceremony.'_

 _Damn liars. All of them._

 _Then a hint of a smirk caught her focus, while her rage burned. Kai Parker, standing beside his grandfather, behind all the others. Things bounced off their forms, as if some invisible shield kept the storm at bay for them._

 _Wrenching her hand away, Bonnie stood huffing out harsh and ragged breaths as she stared down at her mother and grandmother, on their knees and wiping their bloody faces. When they stood, their soothing, familiar voices urged her to try again._

 _The wildness in her surged. She raised her fists, grabbed hold of the wind, and instead of pushing-_ _ **pulled.**_ _Hard._

 _A fireball erupted in the eye of the storm, devouring everything._

-X-x-X-x-X-

They sat at a table outside, looking out at the gleaming Mississippi river. Four empty bowls of jambalaya rested among them and a collection seafood gumbo, crawfish etouffee, and drinks.

"Do we have to go back?" muttered Liv, slumped back in her seat and nursing her third glass.

"And miss Gen's awesome lectures on deportment?" Luka's tone filled with mock indignation. "Girl, I know you've been counting down the hours."

Davina grimaced. "At least you'll all be gone in a month. I have to live there from now on."

"You win," Bonnie said simply, raising her own glass as they all cheered to that, sending the youngest member of their group a collective commiserating glance.

With the new alliance came new egos to stroke. Among them were elders from the community of covens, both in and out of New Orleans, that had long since called the Mikaelsons friends. It wasn't enough for the Bennetts and the Parkers to declare good intentions, no. Sending representatives to attend the traditional debut of novice witches at the annual Induction Ball in New Orleans was a more appropriate way to show it. The Mikaelsons had issued the formal invitations, very politely, their fangs barely glinting as they did so. With maximum grumbling and under Grams' advice, Bonnie's parents had caved. And with barely veiled threats to pull her support, but under her mother and grandfather's guidance, Josette Parker, Gemini faction leader, had finally agreed. In return, the covens sent help to Portland and Mystic Falls, in the wake of recent small skirmishes with werewolves and Travelers.

So Bonnie found herself passing as a witchling for the first time in her life, and making new friends in the motley crew that had formed out of the thirteen Initiates.

Davina was a ward of a vampire who himself had been taken in by the Mikaelsons, over a hundred years ago. The young brunette knew all about kid glove treatment courtesy of Esther, but Marcel's influence meant she'd gotten little glimpses of life outside her gilded cage. And her technique with magic was flawless.

Their walking encyclopedia, Luka, had learned almost every spell and made casting them look easy. He gloated too much, about his coven running with the Mikaelsons for five centuries now. He knew everyone's name and their specialty, but above it all, knew his place in the world. Which was, being the Martin heir. He would've been unbearable, if he wasn't so damn _nice_.

Liv, meanwhile, was nowhere near a novice witch. Her magic hurt the most, when they all trained against each other, the effect of having been groomed to hone her craft since childhood. Too much-summed her up: hair, attitude, family, chip on her shoulder. Her coven surviving for over two millennia meant time had ingrained the ruling families with a heightened sense of paranoia. Like rodents, who'd spent their lifetime underground and were incapable of understanding a thing like sunlight, the Geminis questioned anything presented to them that wasn't a threat, or a call for arms, or a white flag of surrender. And their practices were off, like kids eating kids over magic. Liv had been sent as an olive branch and the general consensus carrying in hushed whispers was, other Geminis hovered at the edges of the city, sight unseen, waiting for any sign of having been double crossed.

Compared to her companions, Bonnie lacked training and know-how. So she devoured spells and entire tomes, trying not to let it faze her when the others invoked magic quicker during casting. How anybody could expect otherwise considering the little she knew surprised her. Yet it was there, in how Esther Mikaelson hovered constantly, the expectant watchfulness in her gaze spurring Bonnie to stay off the radar. An instinct told her standing out led to nowhere good, when it came to the family of Originals.

"Ayana mastered that by this age," Esther muttered once, when Bonnie's stump of a tree failed to flourish in the forest, unlike everyone else's tall, commanding oaks sprouting massive green heads.

But her failure to excel didn't seem to affect the way chance encounters with Esther kept cropping up, most times in the company of her eldest son.

Other times, she ran into him alone.

"Are you lost?"

The portrait gallery offered a long line of haughty upturned, starched cravats, and ruffled silk gowns. Here and there the Mikaelson family stared back, with the same glint of irony peeking out. _Ha-ha_ , their portraits said. Playing a joke on the artist and audience alike because unlike the others, they would probably outlive the canvas strokes.

"No," she said, not bothering to turn as Klaus fell into step beside her.

The hideous and inhumanly long past attached to Klaus had only been tempered in the last several hundred years by the return of his mother, and the reconciliation among the Mikaelsons, on and off as it was especially among the siblings. New Orleans now sat in an on-phase, breathing a little easier for it. But Bonnie's shallow digging had unearthed a few key tidbits: namely, that things were always tenuous, and that there was one family member-the father-excluded from all hope of being welcomed back into the fold.

The very person she'd been warned about from a surprising source, months ago in Mystic Falls.

Klaus never once talked of his father with her. But then, he never spoke much of his family in general. Although she could tell they weighed on his mind a lot. Bonnie found her reaction to him a strange thing. They both brooded, held grudges too close and too long. Like two similar polar magnets facing each other, she found him repellent and thought he probably felt the same towards her.

But lately, the blond hybrid had taken to appraising Bonnie much like his mother did, a definite vibe of cattledom in the air, anytime they met in public. When she found herself alone with him, the appraisal morphed. He stared with that gleam of gold-tipped hunger in his irises, offering a hint of fang in his smile while he tried to spin pretty words in the air between them.

"Fitting that I should find you here," he said now, hands at his back. She glanced quickly at him to find a hint of a smile on his mouth.

"Why's that?"

"I have something for you."

The charcoal drawing he held out was tiny, etched on thick cream paper. Magic weaved around her form while she perched on a bench in the courtyard, her head bowed over a heavy book in her lap.

"Thanks," she merely said, privately vowing never to study anywhere on the grounds ever again, as he escorted her back to the common room.

-X-x-X-x-X-

 _There was disappointment, and there was despondent. Her mother's face went beyond that-Abby Hopkins was devastated._

 _"I can handle it," Bonnie said, mustering calm but the rawness of what she now knew was magic still sparked just under her skin, and made the lights flicker. "You don't need to wipe my mind."_

 _Now she understood, lots of things. Why her family had resembled hedgehogs all these years, her parents tucking into themselves and sticking out their quills in response to anything they viewed as a threat. Teaching Bonnie to do the same, and keep the rest of the world at arms' length._

 _"Come home with me," Abby urged. "You don't have to do any of this."_

 _But that would mean leaving Grams to it. She was getting too old._

 _Nearby, the unsmiling old man with the dancing eyes and his smirking grandson with the empty gaze kept a lookout, waiting to hear back from the others._

 _They'd had to redo the ritual. The second time around, Grams and Abby had had to sit it out, and Bonnie had been the one to bleed her magic into the patterned circle at her feet, throwing words up at the sky that she barely understood._

 _The gist of it made for a curse. Against the werewolves who had made some unholy pact with nomadic witches, to plague New Orleans, Portland, and Mystic Falls. The alliance had spurred their own, despite a long history of bad blood among the three families of Mikaelsons, Parkers, and Bennetts. But too much had been at stake to let pride rule over reason._

 _And apparently, every powerful curse in existence needed the blood of a Bennett._

 _When Madeline Parker returned, Esther Mikaelson and her son trailed hot at her heels. The two women argued, while their sons exchanged hostile pleasantries._

 _As much as she wanted to take a nap just then, Bonnie stayed to witness it escalate._

 _"Of course you think it's safe to go home," Madeline snapped. "Your werewolves are neutered. But us? We still have Travelers breathing down our necks back home."_

 _"The Gemini matriarch," Klaus leered. "Afraid of her own shadow? Perhaps if Josette was a more capable leader, you'd be less fearful."_

 _Kai angled a friendly smile his way. "Said the man who got his neck broken, by a Traveler pretending to be me." He clucked. "Doesn't scream too capable, does it?"_

 _"Bite your tongue," Klaus growled. "Before I rip it out on your behalf."_

 _"It was you," Esther seethed. "We all saw it for ourselves. But why should I be surprised, coming from a liar who massacred his own-"_

 _Madeline Parker let a hex loose, while Klaus sped to her son and started choking his neck. Kai reached up for his face, turning it red beneath his palm. Then something cracked, followed by a long series of more of the same sharp sounds. Klaus grunted in pain, both arms abruptly limp at his sides._

 _Theo Parker and Grams both stood, putting themselves between the warring factions. Even then, the fight kept on, Klaus throwing a vicious kick at Kai that sent him through the window. Esther held Madeline suspended in the air, pinning her to the wall._

 _It took Abby jumping in between them, to help Theo and Grams break the women apart. Meanwhile, Bonnie sprinted outside, just in time to witness Klaus holding Kai up by his hair, dangling him like he was nothing more than a rag doll._

 _"Stop!"_

 _Klaus smiled wickedly. "Hello little witch," he growled. "Care to witness the end of a Gemini? Normally, they're not the Bennetts' favorite people."_

 _"Aren't you guys allies now?"_

 _"Alliances are tricky things," Klaus replied, "so easily unraveled."_

 _Kai hadn't been struggling before. The nearer she came, the better she got a look at his face. He turned slightly, and they locked gazes. He didn't seem worried._

 _Something careened in the air wildly, too fast for her to follow. Klaus stumbled, releasing Kai. The front of Klaus's shirt was decorated with spikes of splintered branches, thick and protruding through his chest and abdomen._

 _Kai angled his neck left and right, working out kinks in his shoulders and back, as he gave a loud, dramatic sigh._

 _"That beef," he said to Klaus. "is_ _ **so**_ _yesterday. Grams feeds me leftovers now. Willingly. Which is way more than I can say for you."_

 _When he stalked back up the porch, Bonnie rushed to help Klaus, as he painstakingly pulled the wood from his bloody torso._

 _Kai paused on the top step, surveying this._

 _"Hey," he tossed out to her._

 _She glanced up._

 _"Before Abby goes, give her this name. Mikael Mikaelson."_

 _"Sounds fake."_

 _"It's legit. I swear. She'll be stoked to give you the details. After all, he's the reason your parents went into hiding."_

 _Then with a wink, Kai disappeared back inside. When she turned back to Klaus, who had already healed by that point, as he lay on the ground staring up at her with a sheepish smile, she had to grit her teeth against the urge to grab the jagged branches and jab them inside his chest all over again._


	3. Chapter 3

_**Ch. 3**_

The Mikaelsons and their inner circle sat in the living room, glasses of wine scattered along the table that was also covered by a map of the city. Here and there, Marcel pointed to the areas pinned along the edges of the river. Embankments, Bonnie realized. Settlements that she'd wandered into herself on the days she went exploring, on the outskirts of the city where no tourists dared stray.

But Bonnie kept silent and watchful, aware that Liv was doing enough broadcasting for the both of them.

"Lovely as it is to welcome the Geminis at our council today," Klaus finally said. "I'm afraid I speak for everyone when I say, your eyerolling and heavy sighs do not in fact comprise any kind of coherent language, Olivia. If you have concerns about this discussion-lucid ones-then by all means, speak freely."

"I don't get why there's even a discussion," Liv said curtly. "They're werewolves. It's all a trap."

Blunt and harsh, but essentially the sum of their fears. Having driven most of the wolf clans away from New Orleans proper in the past year, the recent influx of stray werewolves seeking asylum in the city had thrown everyone-witches, vampires, and Mikaelsons alike. Even the local officials in the know had scratched their heads, but left the final decision up to the supernaturals that led the city. Humans wanted no part of this war, still having so much of their own problems to sweep away. But keeping them was part of Klaus's agenda. Half vampire, half wolf meant he couldn't quite turn his back on the people who showed up at the gates of his city, seeking safe haven.

And now, those same people-wolf families who'd broken ties with the larger New Orleans clans at war with the Mikaelsons-were under attack.

"Naturally you wouldn't understand," Klaus said with an even smile. "Adept as you Geminis are at upholding exclusions and keeping yourselves away from the rest of the world. And yet your family supports...merging, is it? The very opposite of exclusion, taken to the extreme. I do love the irony."

"Whatever," Liv grumbled. "Don't come crying to me when your vampires are all dying of wolf venom."

"As it happens, I am the walking, talking cure for that specific malady."

"It won't come to that," Elijah said smoothly. "Marcel's made sure of it. And with your brother's assistance, Olivia, even now we have eyes and ears on the camps we've allowed entrance. Ensuring their safety, as well as ours."

"That's _if_ he's attending to his duties properly," muttered Klaus. "Rather a big if."

Liv spared that comment a mutinous glare.

"No reason to be pessimistic, Nik," Rebekah said, before adding, with a sugary smile at Liv, "and no need to worry your little curly head about it. There are only a handful of the poor things, at any rate."

Liv snorted. "Poor things? Try spies."

Klaus rubbed his jaw, eyeing Bonnie now. "Would the rest of the peanut gallery like to provide her input?"

Did it matter? She and Liv were only there for show, so the Mikaelsons could report back that their 'war council' included all three families. This would've been far more even if Grams or even Liv's mother or grandfather had made it out, or-better yet-her oldest sister, but coven elders-much less a coven ruler-typically couldn't spare the time, unless it was urgent. This in no way qualified as an emergency. But werewolves and Travelers were a shared threat now, and as representatives of the other branches, Bonnie and Liv had been thrown into the lions' den, never mind that the den in question was composed of antique furnishings and appointed in the finest, most luxurious decorations money could buy.

Under the weight of everyone's stare, Bonnie shifted uncomfortably, partially feeling like she was drowning in too-plush throw pillows and the ultra-soft upholstered fabric of a chair that was likely centuries old. A quick whiff of the air brought the fragrance of flowers to her nose, courtesy of the bouquet of orchids and calla lilies atop the gilded grand piano.

In her jeans, tee, and jacket, a touch of inadequacy washed over her. It was always like this in the company of the Mikaelsons. And Klaus was well aware.

"Do you really need it?" she asked. "If they're innocent, then you're doing the right thing protecting them. If they're not, then-" she shrugged. "We have my blood and I memorized the spell to that curse. They can go join those other clans in exile."

Marcel approached, the picture of good-natured cockiness as he nodded approvingly and came to a stop beside her. His presence always managed to offset the moodiness of his relatives, so her return smile was genuine, automatic. If anything, he reminded her a little of Stefan.

"In a nutshell," Marcel said.

"Not quite," Elijah said. "While we appreciate your willingness to try, I shudder to think what Abby and Sheila might do to us if you did so without them present."

There it was, the kid gloves.

"There's no easy escape hatch from any worst-case scenarios," Esther added.

"Always such a party pooper, mother," Kol said lightly. "Perhaps you might remember Genevieve and Vincent. Josephine la Rue herself might even lend a hand with that curse. And should all else fail, there's always you."

Esther tilted her head, magnanimous, accepting the unspoken deference. It was a weird thing, being reminded of the power that flowed in this room. As much as being invited to join this meeting was a lesson in courtesy to the Bennetts and Parkers, Bonnie guessed it was also a reminder: they were guests here, so long as things went well. What would happen otherwise. She and Liv turned into hostages?

As the discussion went on around the room, Bonnie glanced covertly at Liv and tamed the urge to wonder about her brother. Even running surveillance, shouldn't he have been there, too? But she kept it to herself, as the others stood and parted ways.

Liv had already left the room, she realized. Klaus remained, but his attention was on a document Elijah was pushing before his face, giving Bonnie the chance to flee unnoticed.

Halfway across a long, paneled hall filtering in bright afternoon sunlight, she glanced back to make sure nobody followed, breathing a sigh of relief to find the hallway still empty.

Then turning, she crashed against soft fabric encasing something solid and warm.

"Where's the fire?"

The blinding glare of a winter day outlined Kai's features starkly, turning everything sharp-his smirk and his eyes especially.

"Oh, that's right," he continued in the face of her wide-eyed silence. "Can't start one, can you? Not without permission from mommy Mikaelson. You've still got on your training wheels."

And naturally he always had such pleasant greetings for her.

She made to go around him, trying and failing not to show how irked she was. Getting a rise out of her never worked usually with most people simply for the fact that she could take a _lot_ of bullshit. A by-product of having been raised by parents who had both taught her to spot it a mile away while also spoon feeding it to her, through their non-explanations of their nomadic lifestyle. Then there was also her need to fit in, and make friends.

Liv, Luka, and Davina were her friends. Them, she could joke around with and curse out.

Kai Parker was one of the tutors. For some unquantifiable reason, Esther and Klaus who seemed to be short on fondness for the guy, decided to let him conduct magical lesson plans.

Him, she couldn't curse out.

"Any more attacks on the camps?" she asked.

"Not on my watch."

"Good."

She was near the end of the hallway, giving him an excellent example of someone taking the high road, when he called out:

"I've got a couple empty vials, by the way."

Spurring her curiosity and misgiving both.

"Vials for what?" she asked, only half turning.

"Ya know, just figured I could use some handy Bennett blood, since you don't mind leaving some to the big boys and girls to tinker with." His voice drifted closer, while he approached her back. "I'll even let you sit in the corner so you can watch me appropriate your spells."

Bonnie sighed. Tiny but telling, as she cut her glare towards windows lining the hall. Outside, the courtyard beckoned. They were in the heart of the French Quarter, but in this Mikaelson stronghold, you couldn't even tell. Blooming flower beds lined patterned tiles, and the stone fountain offering the calm trickle of water resembled something she'd once seen on a Conde Nast magazine in a doctor's office, of a quaint French countryside villa set on a vineyard. It was quiet, only a few souls passing here and there through the stone gate. Bodyguards, she supposed, on the lookout for the latest threat to the family.

"If you have a problem with teaching me," she said evenly, "I can go join the other groups."

"No problem here. Just not sure you deserve the hype from Esther and her mama's boy. Since all the other fifteen year old novices can grow a tree while you-" He paused to indulge in a derisive laugh. "A nineteen year old witch still stuck on making it past the root? Can't tell if that's sad or funny."

"Explains a lot. You'd have to be confused, to kill your own coven elders, _including_ your dad."

"Not confused, actually. More like- _ **prudent**_." He shrugged. "It was either them, or all my baby brothers and sisters."

She stared, slightly aghast.

"Yeah. I took the high road. Feel free to openly admire it. Once you learn the whole story."

"I don't want to learn the story. I don't like you. And you clearly share the feeling, so..." She stalked up to him, bringing her hand up and letting her magic shove him against the window. "I'm not really a student, and you're not really my teacher. Let's stay the hell away from each other from now on."

"Whatsa matter, Bonnie? I piss you off so much you forget to hold back?"

The raw aggravation pouring between them stifled everything else-her common sense and her hearing among other things. It wasn't until a throat cleared that they both glanced down the hall to find Rebekah and Elijah approaching.

"Well," the tall blonde said. "What have we walked into, brother?"

"Is there a problem here?" Elijah asked.

Kai held his hands up, half-smile in place as he backed away.

Bonnie checked the urge to squint harder at him. "Nope," she said casually.

Rebekah eyed them with suspicion. "Certainly doesn't look that way, darling, from where I'm standing."

Elijah spared a dismissive glance at Kai, before turning to Bonnie. "Intimidation tactics," he murmured haughtily. "A Parker specialty. Some say the very qualities that allowed an upstart family to climb out of the dregs to take the reins among the Geminis. The Parkers have only been around a few hundred years. Scrappy, you lot," he added to Kai with a glacial smile. "But ill-mannered. Breeding always shows."

They were trying to help, but their brand of it Bonnie could do without. Kai's jaw turned razor sharp at the edges, as he eyed the pair of siblings before him. She didn't even need to look at him to know he was pissed; his magic throbbed against hers with violence, invisible but pressing. She almost went on the defensive, expecting him to attack.

Instead he saluted her with another of his cool smirks, before turning the corner.

She never got a chance to switch out of his training sessions, an oversight made bearable by the influx of practice dummies and other guest mentors that appeared in the last few weeks before the Induction.

Stefan and Damon Salvatore were among the vampires who allowed themselves to be lab mice. The pool of willing vampires from Marcel's camp had grown narrower, with half his people sent on scouting missions. Damon remained aloof and flippant, but Bonnie was happy to see Stefan's friendly face.

He'd brought his girlfriend along, Elena Gilbert, who was Bonnie's age and human and apparently shared history with Klaus and the other Mikaelsons also. Elena filled Bonnie in on chunks of information that she could've used at the outset, and for which she was grateful to have now.

"Okay, making sure I have this right," Bonnie said to Elena, as they walked along Canal street. "Don't trust Elijah or his suits or his perfect manners."

"Check."

"Rekebah's a bitch with a pretty accent."

"Check."

"Kol's crazy, loves witches, and acts out for attention."

"Check."

"That everything?"

"Finn's a mama's boy. Esther's got a habit of playing her kids against each other. But, oh, after the last time Klaus tried to kill her, she's been working on it. And Klaus has the classic middle child syndrome."

Kai had implied Klaus filled the mama's boy role, but looking back she realized that didn't quite fit. As many times as they were in each other's company, Klaus had never radiated that desperate desire to please Esther. It was comfortable, mostly about handling city affairs. Of all the siblings, he seemed the least concerned with Esther's opinion, which told Bonnie, whatever grievances he'd had in the past according to rumors, had long been resolved. She almost envied his ease, and wondered if the day would come that she would find it herself, when it came to her own parents. It was doubtful she'd have as long a list of complaints to file against them as Klaus had with the woman who'd cursed her children with vampirism.

Elena watched her carefully, her assessing brown gaze almost knowing. "Just-don't let your guard down, Bonnie. No matter how nice they play."

Those assessments struck Bonnie as fair. With an appreciative smile, she followed Elena into another vintage boutique shop and waited patiently for her new friend to pick out clothes.

Rebekah did come across like a petty queen bee, but in her voice at times Bonnie heard something familiar-that peculiar longing tone of a prisoner, dreaming of a life outside the fence. Her, Bonnie grew to become comfortable with, even when the Original appeared for hand-to-hand combat lessons, turned them all black and blue, and seemed to only consider Liv as passable. Then there were Kol and Finn, except Finn regularly left to run errands for his mother.

But Kol became a regular presence. Over the course of a thousand years working with witches, and having been one himself when he was mortal, he shared his knowledge of herbs and obscure incantations. It was rare for a vampire to appreciate the craft as opposed to the power it afforded, and as an Original, he was unique in that he actually befriended witches, rather than collect them as a multi-use accessory-slash-weapon of mass destruction. Demented in every other sense especially towards their enemies, for sure. But an awesome mentor, patient and charming and supportive. And he took them on field trips. Even more than Genevieve and Vincent.

Davina had a thing for him, strangely, although she denied it. But the sixteen year old brunette wore her heart on her sleeve, and Liv and Luka teased her until she hexed them into switching hairs.

The day Liv walked around with peach fuzz on her scalp and Luka wore blond curls was forever etched in Bonnie's memory.

Kai, surprisingly, was another instructor who took them out of the compound, the few times he made it to a session-to the bayou mostly, where he sicced alligators and stray vampires on them.

Esther and Klaus had been livid with him after the first session, but Genevieve and Vincent's pleading to let him continue prevailed. Cloaking and other types of defensive magic were his specialty, and the Mikaelsons needed those weapons in the arsenal of their allied covens. Whatever help they could get, seemed to be the approach, now that the Travelers had trickled into New Orleans, setting off chains of attacks to maim the camps of werewolf refugees set up along the outskirts of the city.

Here and there, Bonnie ran into Kai, on his way back from runs with Marcel and his group, or on his way out to join them. Lately, his presence had become more of a regular thing, while his lessons with the Initiates tapered down.

Kai set Bonnie's teeth on edge in a different way than Klaus. If she and Klaus were polar twins, she and Kai were opposites. He shrugged off what she stewed over; where he was reckless, she took extra care. She glared all the time in his presence; he couldn't stop smiling. And yet whenever it was his turn for a session, Bonnie found herself with questions-so many-and she wanted badly for time to have them answered.

But not _by_ him. How? Her questions mostly _featured_ him.

Kai wasn't born with magic; yet he had it. He stole mystical energy by touch, but she failed to think of a time that he'd lain a hand on anyone (aside from Klaus), the entire time she'd been around him. He was the eldest Parker, but the pictures Liv had shown of Kai's twin sister showed he lacked her wrinkles. Unless he'd somehow used magic to formulate the world's best anti-age cream.

Liv was no help. As much as she grumbled about her family-the incessant bickering and competition-and living in Portland all her life-the smell of breweries was stamped permanently in her nose, she griped...Liv rarely gave anything away about her coven that Bonnie didn't first offer to give up her firstborn for.

Meanwhile, Bonnie's now well-documented affinity for fire had put her firmly back on the map with Esther. And by extension, Klaus. He popped up at the strangest times now. In the middle of the day, taking her on a tour of the haunted mansions. Then returning there at night, so she could see the difference.

Once, after a long afternoon of earning black and blue bruises during Rebekah's lessons with the group, Bonnie was just tired enough, just on the verge of quitting, that when Klaus unexpectedly walked into the communal eatery, she lacked the energy to tell him no. And he cut short her meal there, to whisk her to one of the oldest restaurants decorated like a steamboat out front. With candlelight and no other customers on the second level where they ate, as they drank ludicrously expensive wine from delicate glasses that sang when she fingered the rim.

He gave her another drawing, this time of her grandmother and her parents. Set in profile. Like cameos. The sight of them made her chest ache.

Later, the sense of being homesick and her gratitude overwhelmed her. When Klaus kissed her, she let him, but only on the cheeks, turning her mouth away at the last moment.

Even then the taste of being claimed by him was firm on his lips.

She carried the guilt for days. But even being a witch, couldn't travel through time to take it back.

It bothered her in a keen way that had her calling her grandmother in near panic back in Mystic Falls, wishing she was there, well away from the compound. Away from all the polished, shiny, and plush, that entailed life at the Mikaelson lair. She made her call standing at the edge of the Mississippi river, where the embankment showed little huts, and the squatters who lived there. This time, a human camp.

Every one of the Original family would have curled their lip in distaste.

"What happened?"

Her grandmother's voice was fraught with nerves.

"Nothing, Grams. I guess I just-" she took a moment, trying to keep her voice cheerful. "Don't know why I keep being compared to Ayana."

"She died a long time ago. People need to get over it."

"I don't know..." This one, she had to word this one carefully, because there were _rules_ and _expectations_. It was threaded through all the interactions in this Mikaelson court. She'd looked hard and long enough at all the witches and vampires that mingled with the Original family. Having alliances wasn't limited to battling enemies. A few took their existing connection to another setting entirely-the bedroom. "If I'll take, Grams. I'm...not sure what people thought was gonna happen here."

"Keep doing what's right for you, child. Nobody said you ever had to do more than that. I trust your judgment, Bonnie."

"Funny, because I just goofed." Given Klaus the wrong idea, possibly. But that wasn't Grams' problem. A little less certainly, Bonnie added, "I'll fix it. Somehow."

"I'll be there soon."

* * *

 **A/N:** Hi! So to answer some stuff. **Keenan24** : Bonnie's 19, Kai's mid-20s, and Klaus is a little older, whatever age he was when he first popped up in Mystic Falls. **Leia:** Damon's alive, sorry, though he won't factor in too much. **Practicallycharmed:** Joshua's dead, but Mikael...hmmm. And yes, I'm better, thanks so much. Also can't wait to see your fics when they're done. **Ceebee:** the blond guy in the 1st chapter talking to Stefan was Klaus. Kol makes a tiny cameo here. **Shoney:** I know there's a huge Klaroline fanbase, and have a few ideas on how this might end but wanted to write a story where Bonnie's for once the girl multiple guys are batcrazy about. long overdue methinks. :) **Cheleonrage:** not sure if you're more of a Klonnie or Bonkai fan, but if Klonnie I promise it's not an imbalanced triangle, though it might look like it now. **babyshan and tehzo:** stay tuned for more, thanks for reading!

Thanks so much for the feedback, guys.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ch. 4**_

 _They were all parting ways, for now, Bonnie to go say good-bye properly to her dad, now that she was moving in with her grandmother, at her cottage in Mystic Falls._

 _Everyone else shared tense farewells, with the understanding that in a few short months, they would reunite for a more public and official sense of solidarity to show to their respective communities._

 _Esther pressed on Bonnie's hand, stroking her hair, and hugged her, regally, whispering, "Your ancestor was my dearest friend. She saved my life, and those of my children."_

 _Then leaned back to gaze solemnly into Bonnie's face._

 _"We'll stay in touch. Your grandmother will have the arrangements and when you arrive, everything will be as it should. You'll meet other novices like yourself. So have no worries. Niklaus, take your proper leave of Bonnie."_

 _He didn't even need to be told, was already there, the light of something certain in his gaze when he leaned in and brushed a soft kiss on her hand. She'd be lying if she didn't admit to a rush of pure appreciation, but it went hand in hand with curious urge to scrub her hands raw, and erase the parts of her skin infected by his touch._

 _Her shiny new magic didn't like Klaus._

 _"Take care, witchling."_

 _When the doors closed behind them, the relief hit her so strongly, remaining with her for such a long time, that it kept her from realizing until too late that her grandmother was making a detour on the way to the airport._

 _At the hotel, they found the three Parkers, small duffels on their shoulders. Theo appeared most at ease, while Madeline spoke to him, Grams and her mother the entire way to the airport, in hushed tones. Giving the clear impression to Bonnie that she and Kai were on their own as far as entertaining themselves. Shut out of the grown-up talk, they sat in the third row of the SUV, with barely any legroom but a surplus of tension. Hard to pinpoint what caused it, since he spent most of the time gazing out the window and looking at his phone._

 _Here and there, she made use of the time to nap, letting fatigue wash over her. Her eyes never stayed closed for long. Along with the occasional jolt that was part and parcel of commuting along the pockmarked highways and service roads that led to the airport, there was also the matter of waking up to find Kai swiveling his head away from her direction. As if she'd caught the tail end of his silent assessment of something-her face? had she snored?-and he was intent on leaving it at that, and keeping the indifferent wall of cool between them._

 _The total opposite of Klaus._

 _She wasn't sure whose approach was more off putting._

 _So far, none of the Parker witches struck her as overly welcoming. Theo, maybe. Once he had his tea._

 _So she would find other witches to befriend. No great loss._

 _When Grams reached the departure lanes, all three hopped out of the car with barely a word of thanks. She thought Theo might have muttered something that approached it, but Madeline and her son headed towards the entrance without fanfare, without even waiting for Bonnie and her mom to extract their own luggage._

 _Just before the automatic doors swallowed them, Kai turned his whole body, catching Bonnie mid-stare. She didn't bother whipping her gaze away while he smirked, chewed the bottom of his lip and flicked a casual finger up and out, as if some invisible cigarette he'd been smoking had reached the end of its usefulness. He was yards away, but a stray breeze where she stood abruptly swept the strand of hair beside her cheek, grazing her mouth. Wherever he'd stolen it from, the magic he used was a teasing nudge against hers._

 _Parts of her went hot, other parts tingled, while all of her brain seized with caution:_ _ **Do not disturb.**_

-X-x-X-x-X-

The Induction loomed close. The nearer it got, the greater her sense of suffocation, until finally Bonnie left the compound one night, well after the curfew Genevieve and Vincent had imposed.

The old abandoned theater well outside the French Quarter sat unobtrusively on the outskirts of the city, away from tourists and mobs of party-goers. It wasn't her first time sneaking out of the house, but it was her first where she had no clear idea where to go or what to do.

Wandering had brought her first to the pier that overlooked the bayou, taking in the murkiness. Here no brassy music or bright lights could distract from this part of the city, where a feeling of loss permeated. When she closed her eyes, it seeped under her lids, heavy and mournful, no faces attached, or even a specific place. It threatened to overwhelm her, the sense of being torn away from something or someone, before it should've happened, before something good could come of the union.

A bitter interruption, she realized. Someone's life. Not just one, but many.

She couldn't stay there, and soon found her way to another part of town touched distantly by the sounds of music and crowds.

The theatre offered a distraction, the crumbling facade and rusty marquee sign a testament to its broken secrets that nobody bothered delving into, in a city already saturated with history. Through broken windows, the outside light from distant streetlamps filtered in, highlighting pockets of dust in the dilapidated building. She picked her way through the decay inside and found a creaking seat that offered a view of a tattered, blank screen.

There, the quiet surrounding her was welcome. Restful.

"Uh-oh. Did we miss the previews?"

Shrieking, she bolted from her seat.

Liv's oldest brother sat in the seat behind her, slurping soda from a straw. Sloppy, smug, and amused. All three expressions that wiped clear off his face, when her hand on instinct went up. He sailed across the dusty space, crashing through the screen she'd just been contemplating in what she thought had been, for a second there, peaceful solitude.

"Ow."

Several pained groans later, magic surged from the hole he'd made. The remaining pieces of the screen burst, forming rubble that Kai stumbled through. He shook his head at her, the remnants of a pleased smile still half-formed along his mouth.

"Plucky," he said, wagging his finger at her. "I like."

The glare she sent could've melted his face, if her magic wasn't already threatening to do so. Behind him, heavy stained curtains began to smoke. But because she hadn't left the compound to attract trouble, she willed her anger to subside. It wouldn't work while she looked at him, so she turned on her heel to leave.

"Bonnie," he called. "Don't you wanna see the show?"

Frozen in place by his abrupt incantation, the room around her spun. Hazy forms cast a faint glow within the shadowed theater.

The forms grew sharp, until the faces looked familiar. Klaus. His siblings. His mother. And a host of strangers, mostly women. Witches. A series of random encounters and exchanges. No conversation or noise to hear, but their actions rang out loud and clear.

The Mikaelsons wore different hair and clothes each time, their environment just as changeable. A village, a city, dirt road, sprawling mansion, factory, boat. What stayed constant were the people around them. The collection of witches at their side. At _Klaus's_ side. From ally to friend to lover to foe-the end result seemed to be the same.

The witches died. Either from protecting the Mikaelsons, or because they crossed them.

She watched Klaus and a pretty girl, their forms tangled in a darkened bedroom. Next it shifted to woods that appeared familiar. Mystic Falls. Klaus and the girl stood before a circle of magic. Mid-chant, the girl's features looked familiar. Bonnie tried to place why that was.

Then she saw her grandmother, stepping out from behind a tree, her hand up in attack. The young witch fought back. The duel didn't last long. Her grandmother was strong, seasoned. Blood pooled beneath the girl's nose. The magic surrounding her and Klaus dissipated. Someone-Damon Salvatore, she realized with shock-snuck up behind the girl and snapped her neck.

Bathed in gray light, Klaus sprinted across the theater, his mad grief palpable even now, in this ghostly image. Grams brought him to his knees. Clutching his head, his pained grimace displaying clearly the streak of tears on his face, Klaus reached towards his dead witch on the ground.

Then the room plunged back into shadows, broken only by scattered beams of dim light from outside.

Bonnie found her limbs responsive once more. Again it struck her, the difference in both men. Klaus when she faced him offered heat in his gaze and cold in his touch. Staring at Kai now, at his lifted brow, no cracks showed in his usual mask of coolness, as he returned the appraisal. She swallowed against the idle thought of his skin-knowing that unlike Klaus, he would be warm. Human, but with the current of magic pulsing in his blood. The thought grew more intriguing, the longer she studied him.

"Guess granny and mommy dearest left out those details?" he asked casually.

"That and lots of other things," she conceded in a mutter.

So her grandmother was involved in the death of Klaus's girlfriend. And somehow he and Esther both were interpreting Bonnie's presence here as-what, exactly? Reparation? Grams had already warned her to be polite but keep everyone at arms' length. Her mom had preached the same. No matter what the Mikaelsons thought, whoring out their young just was not in the Bennett repertoire. Bonnie wouldn't be the first exception to that rule.

Kai kept staring, inspiring something brittle and defensive to jump out. Not a normal reaction for her, when an attractive man looked her way.

"I'm not here to take that other witch's place." She even laughed, as if it made no difference. "Hello, there are a bunch of covens the Mikaelsons are friendly with. Tons of other women and-"

But now the thought struck her as distasteful.

"Does Klaus always have a witch in his pocket?"

Kai scoffed in reply. "Ask Genevieve. How do you think she got so comfy?"

She ignored that barb. Davina and Liv both had already brought up the history between their mentor and the Original. It was a source of tension in how Genevieve dealt with Bonnie specifically. Both competition and apprentice, in a way.

"This whole thing is..." 'Weird' felt lacking to say, so she left off. "Who was that girl, anyway?"

"Ask your buddy Luka."

"Quit telling me to ask other people. You followed me all the way here. Might as well be useful. Tell me."

He approached, dropping into a nearby seat and propping his legs up on the back of the chair in front of him, as another soda materialized in his hands that he, once more, slurped from.

The noise echoed around them, before he lifted his head to smile at her.

"Greta Martin. His sister."

Floored, her legs lacked the strength to keep upright and she too sank into a chair. It happened to be right next to Kai.

"Luka never mentioned a sister," she said, her voice feeble.

On this bizarre journey through magical training that was as far from Hogwarts as it could get, she'd begun to see Liv, Davina, and Luka as her battle mates. The ones to lean on in a crunch, her friends to trust in a foreign world that easily made her feel adrift and sometimes, inept. But now she knew better than to be so gullible.

"Trust no one," Kai said, waving his fingers playfully, his voice dropping deep but filled again with mockery.

She cut a glare his way, only to realize he was right. Of everyone at the lair, he was the only person so far who'd spared her the effort of fair warning. The vibe of expectancy that surrounded Klaus and his mother now made sense to her. But why would Kai of all people even bother with this warning?

"What's in it for you?" she asked. "What do you care?"

Naturally, he only shrugged at that. "I don't. Your Grams is one of a few people my family sorta kinda don't hate. Guess I'm just returning a favor."

"You owe her or something?"

"Oh, would you look at that?" he said, glancing at his wrist that held no watch. " _Way_ past your bedtime. We seriously gotta get back."

Then magic enveloped both of them, but before the teleportation spell ended, he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "See ya soon, Bonster."

Moments later, she was back at the compound, blinking into blackness that receded the longer she gazed around to reorient. The familiar corners of a bed and a dresser faced her.

What she'd learned of teleportation spells was this: the end result needed to be a place you'd either seen before or visited. Up along her spine trickled something creepy and a little bit of something else, when she wondered-

 _When the hell had_ _ **Kai**_ _been to her_ _ **room**_ _?_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Ch. 5**_

Treading carefully became as necessary to her day to day function as breathing, or showering. Only now, it was with everyone. Before, she could let her hair down with the other novices. But no longer with Luka. Or even with Liv and Davina, whose family ties to Kai and Klaus now colored the tentative friendship that the novices had only just started to forge.

Bonnie Hopkins wasn't meant to find kinship among the witches here, was the unfortunate truth.

In the days that led up to the Induction, along with the impending arrival of Grams, Madeline and Theo, Klaus and Kai became more of a fixture at the compound. Rather than spending his time intimidating his enemies or indulging in drawing, feeding, fencing and whatever else f-activities a one thousand year old hybrid got up to these days, Klaus attended more closely to the goings-on with the Initiates. Kai, meanwhile, was now properly set up in his own quarters, in some other wing of the compound.

The more Bonnie tried to avoid running into both men outside of what related to witch business, the worse she had it.

Growing up, she'd had three boyfriends. One as a freshman in high school that her parents had vetted to within an inch of his life. After three months of exposure to the Hopkins' method of living, that involved constantly looking over their backs, he'd scared off. Him, Bonnie regretted losing because he'd been genuinely into her and vice versa. Boyfriend two, was her experiment during junior year. The one she'd lost her virginity to, and smoked weed and gone raving and tried ecstasy with. His divorced parents had stepped in finally, contacted her own, and proceeded to lay all of their son's bad choices at her feet. It was the first and only time Bonnie had felt like a bad seed, but her mom and dad hadn't thrown any of it in her face, had even gone to the trouble of pointing out to the other parents that their son had a rap sheet from juvy that originated well before Bonnie had entered his life.

Boyfriend three had been sweet, on and off, and had never met her parents because by then she'd learned the ropes. The natural progression of a normal relationship had reached its end when they'd parted ways. Eventually, the hurt in her chest at finding his old shirt tucked into the back of her closet no longer felt like the end of the world.

At a certain point, she'd even moved on enough to one or two casual encounters. Life was easy, when it came to men. They'd never been all that complicated.

Except now. Now, she witnessed the other end of the spectrum: messiness. A landmine she had no experience navigating.

And through no effort of her own, which made it all the more suspect. The greater time she spent dwelling on it, the larger her resentment grew. Magic had brought it on her head. Without it, Klaus and Kai were non-issues, as much as her vanity wanted to say otherwise. Like any women, she knew her strengths and her limitations based on being acquainted with a mirror. New Orleans had no shortage of pretty girls.

The Bennett legacy was the major draw for Klaus. It was obvious in how a conversation with him carried the same bookends-the influence of magic and the idea of some kind of shared dominion-always. Here and there he littered the conversation by waxing poetic about her eyes, and her skin, and her lips. Every once in a bold while, he let his gaze linger on her body. But he was always courteous and respectful with his words, despite constantly invading her personal space.

On one such occasion, as she headed towards an afternoon training class with the rest of her small group, Klaus happened to be passing at the main staircase. He stopped them there.

"Loathe as I am to interrupt your training," he began, skipping a glance over everyone before letting his eyes rest on Bonnie. "I'm afraid I'll need to pull one of you from today's lesson."

To a one they all fell silent, three pairs of eyes rounding on Bonnie as she shuffled nervously at the back of the group. Being singled out had become such a regular thing, nobody even bothered to ask who he meant.

"Genevieve won't be happy," Davina said, earning Bonnie's gratitude for trying to keep her with the class. "It's potions this afternoon."

"She's already aware, Dav." Smoothly, he sidled nearer Bonnie, somehow separating her from the others as he tilted a dismissive look to the others. "Run along, the rest of you. I'll return your little friend before curfew."

But the anxiety of leaving the compound in his company gave way to something else, the further away they strayed from the usual places he took her to. Bypassing fancy restaurants, museums, and gardens, Klaus took her outside of the city, to a backwater swamp she'd used as a hiding hole, where she imagined none of the Mikaelsons would ever dare set foot. He pointed out various encampments here and there on the north side, towards the plumes of smoke that rose in the distance. Groups of refugees allowed entry months ago, living the gypsy way. A few of them were the werewolf clans they'd been discussing, now staking their claim land after having given their loyalty to the Mikaelsons and the coven alliance. There weren't many, but those that stayed kept the peace.

Later, he led her along the western edge, on to higher ground with a view of the city below. From there she saw everything-the way the land seemed ready to sink into the river surrounding it, and how the skyline appeared squat and lacking, in comparison to other cities she'd lived in.

"I can tell from your eyes," came the gravel voice beside her, "you've yet to be amazed by the view."

"What's it matter?" she replied.

"It's not the buildings that make the city, Bonnie." He came to stand beside her, gazing out in complacence. "But the people. Our heritage. The legacy left to us, and which we in turn pass down."

"Easy for you to say. You'll be around to see it all. I don't plan on living past this century."

Wrong of choice of words, she knew, but intentional. Some devil at her shoulder-was his name Kai?-goaded her to push the hybrid's buttons and see his infamous temper tantrums for herself. Klaus was always so polite around her, at odds with so many other things she'd heard. Where was the raging wolf? The cunning vampire? The manipulative villain, to everyone outside of the Mikaelson inner circle? All she ever saw were the pretty manners. Trust couldn't be built on that.

"What's the matter, witchling? Have I done something wrong?"

No. Her problem in a nutshell.

"If I've given any offense," he said, far more stiffly now. "Rest assured, it was unintentional."

"Klaus," she started, but then grew confused, seeing the look of hurt cross his face. Since when and why did she have the ability to cause that? They didn't even know each other well. But she pushed through, carrying on and chucking all notions of keeping herself at arms' length, like her grandmother and mother had both warned. By sending her here without the whole story, they'd laid the groundwork for this convoluted maze that she now had to navigate on her own. Watching her every step while she was at it.

She was sick of it.

"Ditto," she said now, crossing her arms on instinct because she knew he wasn't pleased at the moment with her and facing off with an Original hybrid had yet to be in any of the lesson plans. Questions raced through her mind- _why the Romeo approach? why not target the scores of other women-other_ _ **witches**_ _out there, already batshit for the King of New Orleans? why the hell_ _ **her**_ _?_

But she already knew. Having him voice it out loud served nothing, except to underscore a playing field that was nowhere near level. Not here, in his turf. How neatly he and his mother had played their hand. Had her mother and grandmother suspected any of this, when they'd sent her here?

Hell.

Did Klaus himself even really _want_ any of this?

"Level with me," she said on a sigh, waving a hand over the grass and turning the damp ground dry enough for her to plunker down on. "Is wooing the newest Bennett witch all about getting even with my grandmother for killing your girlfriend?"

She never once looked up, while he stared down for long moments to consider his reply.

"Not all."

"Would you consider getting over it if I found you someone new to replace your Greta?"

That one, he kept her waiting on even longer. He walked a few yards away from her, seeking his answer somewhere in the growing darkness, as the sun set behind the city. She let the silence stretch out between them, sensing his growing impatience in the turn of his shoulder and the fist that formed on one hand.

"I'm over a thousand years old," he presently said. "I have neither need nor patience for a matchmaker, Bonnie."

"Give me a shot," she threw back, slightly desperate now. "I've set up other friends before."

His smile, strained and otherwise inscrutable, was the only give on his face, while his eyes flashed amber.

"If you were more open to getting to know me better, Bonnie, you'd realize I'm not all about mating."

"No? You're part wolf. I figured that played a big role in why you're breathing down my neck. Newsflash: I'm not in heat, Klaus."

He sniffed subtly. "That's not what my senses are telling me."

She felt the blush diffusing from the top of her head all the way to her toes. This encounter now held such a different undertone compared to the others, she wasn't surprised he picked out how unsettled it made her. But that was it. Unsettled, and nothing else.

"You're confusing flustered with horny," she said evenly. "Try again. Better yet, tell the truth. What's got you quaking in your boots so bad you're willing to prostitute yourself for an alliance with my family? Isn't it enough what you have here? You've got the monopoly on New Orleans magic, Klaus. You don't need to play acrobatics with a witch in bed. And you won't do it with me."

"That's not all I seek."

"It can't just be a Bennett hard-on," she mused. "There's something else, right? Is it because my mom desiccated your dad, and you think I can take him on if he shows himself?"

His jaw ground silently, with violence as the sound of his teeth gnashing filled the narrowing space between them.

"Surprised I know about that? Or did you think I let myself get tossed into the lions' den without digging a little bit first?" She tossed a disdainful look at him, the most hostile one she could muster in the face of his agitated silence. "If it's not about that, then maybe you just want to see if my wonderful wacky blood can generate more spells to use against the werewolves camping out here." She scoffed. "For being part woof, you sure do have issues with that side of the family."

"Enough, Bonnie."

"There," she said, shooting to her feet. "I went and did it now. You're pissed."

"Not quite, but I must admit you're excelling at getting me there." Then he angled his head, considering. "Would you prefer it?"

"Yeah, why not? I've heard some shitty things about you. Let's see them."

"Ah. Now the picture clears. Some little bird's been in your ear, turning you against me. Who was it? Stefan?"

"What, no-"

"He and I were rather chummy back in the day. The reformed ripper with the heart of gold. Quite a draw with the ladies, that combination. I do hope you haven't fallen for it. You see, Bonnie," he drew nearer, the gold in his eyes returning. And then staying. She found herself a little unable to look away from it, and the menace that now cloaked him. "I've rather grown to expect better from you."

"How? You don't even know me."

"I've watched you long enough."

"Oh." Just how long had he been doing _that_? Unnerved by his confession, she forced a laugh. "That explains a lot."

But they were at a stalemate now. He didn't want her afraid, she realized. Maybe because so many others were? And she wanted more than anything to see him at his worst, so she could know for sure. But months of hearing about heritage and legacy and responsibility had now been drilled inside her head, merging with the parts of herself already so quick to take on that four letter word- _duty_. Part and parcel of the Hopkins way of life, aside from being careful and blending in with normal, was being a team player. How else had she managed to grow up only a tiny bit scathed, in the face of parents consumed with armoring her from everything?

The best thing-the _smart_ thing-would be to play just as nice as he was trying to.

"You're very new," he said softly. "But you understand what's happening, don't you? How much care has been taken to maintain the peace. I once demolished something similar, years ago. My mother and siblings took were at great pains to cultivate alliances, but I indulged the monster in me and then spent a century or two running afterwards. It was a lesson well learned, Bonnie."

Immortality must have sucked, for someone who didn't have a handle on his emotions. But here now, as she gazed up at his smooth face and let the eerie glow of his eyes draw her in, her fear ebbed. The unblinking stare of a monster didn't faze her the way it should, even though the skin around his eyes were creeping red and signaling hunger.

"I mourned Greta," he said carefully. "And then I buried her. Bygones, Bonnie. Your grandmother is well aware."

"If you're looking for side action," she replied, maintaining an even tone despite his nearness. "You're barking up the wrong tree."

His head bent lower. "In my personal experience, I've yet to know a king who bothered to show a mistress his land and include her in his politics."

"Doesn't mean it never happened. C'mon, Klaus, if that's what this boils down to-you needing action, go wild. I'm not judging you. I can suggest a couple names, even. In case you're blind and dumb and deaf."

"A sentiment much appreciated, but one I'll have to pass on."

"I just called you dumb. Not even a _tiny_ bit mad?"

Fangs gleamed out, when he smiled at the hints of husky in her voice. "Would it be inappropriate to confess I find your version of foreplay quite delightful?"

A cold finger traced her brow down to her cheek. Breath held, she didn't move a muscle as her magic shoved him away.

Then she whipped herself around to gain distance and sanity.

Where was all _this_ coming from?

"Friendship," she seethed. "Is all I have to offer you, Klaus. That and playing Cupid for you and some _other_ witch."

Although she had an inkling, based on that shiny moment of bright rage in his eyes after her taunt about the werewolves, that matchmaking would be her cover. What she really needed was to get familiar with the hairy beasts that she knew so little of, out in those camps.

"Very well." The polished tones sounded sullen, slightly bored. Completely untrustworthy now. "Mother won't be pleased."

On the verge of slamming him for that pathetic comment, she caught just in time the gleam of wicked in his gaze when he glanced back at her. "How fortunate for you that Finn's the one still attached to her apron strings." He tossed an idle gaze at the dimming skies. "Come. I promised to have you back before curfew, and I am a man of my word, Ms. Hopkins."

She narrowed a look on him, but tamed the hope rising from her belly. While he sounded sincere, after this one-on-one she had understandable doubts. Something new had flared between them for a moment there, and now like flying nuisances freshly sprung from Pandora's box, they flittered around and dogged her steps the rest of the way back.

-X-x-X-x-X-

"What's up with you, Hopkins?"

The lighthearted voice held traces of accusation that came as no surprise, as Bonnie looked up from the tome in her lap.

Luka glowered at her, but good-naturedly because that was his thing. The boyish brown gaze that met hers never seemed capable of violence or deceit, even when he was mid-spell and decapitating vampires during their sessions out in the swamps that skirted the city, or filling her, Liv, and Davina in on the latest pow-wow involving the latest out-of-town elder arriving for the Induction.

Next to him were Davina and Liv, twin expressions of cool curiosity on their faces.

Bonnie peered up in silence, one brow raised.

"You skipped dinner with us. The girls are dying to know what happened with El Hybrid."

Another brow arched up to join the other, as Liv and Davina both glanced at him.

"Okay," he conceded. " _I'm_ dying to know."

Bonnie was in the library, lounging on an overstuffed leather chair in her pajamas past bedtime. Sleep had eluded her and stewing in her thoughts under the covers had gotten irksome. She thought she'd been quiet enough not to be noticed.

Leave it to this trio to sniff her out here. She wasn't sure which one had picked up on her growing reserve, but here they were, like barely leashed puppies with a bone to chew. They wouldn't let this go, so she went for broke, because after the day with Klaus airing out her grievances, what was one more confrontation with her fellow Initiates?

"Tell me about Greta," she said to Luka, putting her book aside.

His brow face turned wan, the good-natured smile dying.

"She was my older sister. She's dead."

Bonnie sat up straighter, not expecting the bluntness of the answer, and also not even caring that Davina and Liv were there as witness to what should have been a private discussion. She suspected anyway that they knew more of the story than her.

"Who killed her, Luka?"

His sigh was prolonged. The way his hands found his face and squeezed told her he'd been anticipating this conversation after all.

"She got herself killed, Bonnie. Look, I'm not out for payback against your or your grandma, okay? Greta was a good person with bad ideas. Klaus shouldn't have listened to her. Now will you quit being weird?"

"When did it happen?"

"Seven years ago. I was eleven."

"And you're over it? Just like that?"

"Greta wasn't around much when I was younger. She spent a lot of time roaming, you know? When I was old enough to remember, she was already hanging out with Klaus."

"That doesn't faze you, being around him?"

"My dad's tight with the family, my whole coven is. How do you think Greta got pulled in?"

"Exactly. Why didn't you guys run for the hills?"

This time Luka made a sound, caught between a laugh and something more bitter. "You didn't grow up in a coven, Bonnie. You haven't heard things like 'collateral damage' but those are terms my dad uses a lot."

"My mom, too," Liv added. "And Jo. Kai. My grandpa."

"Marcel," Davina chimed in. "Esther and Klaus. They should all have it tattooed on them."

"Like a tramp stamp?" Liv mused.

"Sure, why not?"

"Not helping, guys," Luka said. With a sober nod to Bonnie, he continued, "Maybe even Sheila Bennett will pull those words out of her sleeve one of these days when you guys talk."

"My grandma keeps me in the dark a lot, in case you can't tell."

"Gee, sorry for your sheltered life," Liv said in tones of false sympathy. 'Them's the breaks?"

"That's not what I-" Bonnie broke off, realizing how utterly juvenile it was, her approach to this. They were right. They'd all been raised battle-ready, and rather than envy them she should've spared a thought to the bleakness that kind of childhood offered. Meanwhile, her normal upbringing had her floundering in unfamiliar waters now, which meant she needed all the help she could get just to stay afloat.

Her own breath came out as a quick of air. Somewhere there, she hoped she'd exorcised the last of her doubts about her allies.

"Do me a favor from now on, guys? Don't be like her. If there's something I should know...tell me."

"Fine," they said as one.

"But tit for tat, Bonnie," Liv warned. "Like right now."

"Yup," Luka said. "You're up to no good, aren't you?"

She would have rolled her eyes, but denying it was impossible, although technically, she wasn't planning anything bad, per se. But Luka always had a way about him, and she never quite knew how to shut him out. More than anything, he reminded her of family-a brother, almost-that she'd never known was missing in her life.

"Don't make me regret this," she said, begrudgingly.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Shoutout to those who reviewed, including the pleas from latest chap of Charade reviews to keep working on this story. Because of that, CC hiatus is on hiatus.

While May 10 is actually an effed up day for the Geminis and the Parkers, it's also the day Bonnie and Kai first met. Also the day Bonnie killed Kai. And the day Kai stabbed Bonnie. So many firsts, on 1 day. Gosh those TVD writers. Such romantics. They treat Bonnie with kid gloves, they do. It's touching. I just can't help thinking May 10 is some kind of (murder) holiday for Bonkai. Whatever, I'm drinking to it. Cheers, my fellow shipmates. ;)

 _ **Ch. 6**_

"This is it," Davina said, her customary shy girl personality in hiding, as she led the group along the sidewalk to the corner of storefronts that looked, to Bonnie, like nothing more than covers for a strip club.

This wasn't the part of New Orleans with gilded edges and gargoyles topping the buildings, with architecture boasting craftsmanship and history. No, here was nothing but metal sidings caked with rust and the stray cracked window, in front of which were slapped iron bars as if in afterthought.

Liv squinted up with her nose equally scrunched up, as they all stared in front of the tiny pub where they had stopped. HOUD N 'S - faced them from the glass door, gold block lettering hanging from the top center all chipped, and with a noticeable gap between some of the letters.

"Is Kol dyslexic?" asked Liv. "He got the 'd' and 'n' mixed up. Someone should've clued him in before he paid for that."

The blonde's curls flew this way and that as she took in the stained, empty street littered with trash of all types, flying in the breeze. Bonnie tucked her hair behind her ear and tried for a cheerful smile as Davina waited with an expectant, hopeful one of her own. Luka only shook his head in dismissal.

"It's _Houdini's_ ," he said. "Not _Hounds_. The 'I' fell off."

"Both of them?" Bonnie couldn't help asking the brunette. "Coincidence or was it on purpose to add style?"

"What kind of style exactly?" Liv pushed, still doubtfully casing the place.

"Dirty dive bar meets supernatural poker room?"

Davina shook her head in irritation at both girls. "He just didn't get around to fixing it yet. Not that it matters," she said hurriedly. "Everyone comes here. You should see it on weekends."

"Mmm," Liv said, not all that convincing. "I'll bet."

Bonnie felt Davina bristle. Instead of glancing behind to witness the brunette witch telekinetically throw Liv into the path of the few cars that careened recklessly by this road to nowhere, Bonnie squared her shoulders, stepping through the door Luka was pulling open.

It jangled with false cheer by way of a brass bell tied to the interior handle, welcoming the trio into the gloomy, smoky ambiance of a sketchy pub. Probably exactly how Kol intended. For an Original, he was _nothing_ like the rest of his family. And that thought, for some reason, put Bonnie at ease as they walked further inside.

Kol was there, of course, bright grin in place as soon as he spotted the three of them. He was a blur of tending the bar in between making rounds of the room, pausing to chat with customers on their barstools.

Here and there occupied tables lay shrouded in smoke and magical essences: vampire and witch, for the most part, with the occasional muted human blinking weakly to Bonnie's extra senses.

She reached the Original first, her own neutral greeting breezily accepted.

The other night, Luka had shared a story about Kol tracking down a vampire who had cost Marcel a new shipment of rare magical artifacts from South Africa. The cargo ship had been sunk somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico after hostile vampires had infiltrated the boat. One of Marcel's own had been an informant. He'd tried to run.

Kol had spent a few idle days patiently waiting out of sight, before finally arriving back home drenched in blood, dangling the traitor's spine around his shoulders. He'd used it as decoration along the front gates of the Mikaelson compound, as a reminder for those tempted to cross any member of his family, that running away was generally an impossible thing.

"Now this is the right way to brighten up the evening," he said now. "Greetings, my favorite Initiates."

They took a seat near him, Davina furthest away because being youngest and most vulnerable to his charms, she seemed most afraid to gain his attention. Never mind that she'd known him for years now, the girl was doing her best not to come across as susceptible. Bonnie knew the tactic and felt for her friend. She let the moment serve as reminder that while she had days of feeling alone in the Big Easy that so far had been everything _but_ , if nothing else, Liv and Davina were the closest thing she'd ever get to sisterhood, and Luka to a brother.

"So, what brings you by? Don't tell me Vincent and Genevieve have added alcohol consumption to your lessons. I'm quite happy to tutor that class, if you promise not to vomit all over my counter and floors. I just had them stripped and waxed."

The way he said 'stripped' and 'waxed' and sent a loaded smile at Liv had Bonnie almost snorting, especially with the loathsome glare the blonde tossed back in turn.

Davina, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes but stayed quiet, peering around carefully. Bonnie did likewise, then nudged her friend to be less conspicuous. Kol had no way of sensing their magic scanning the room for werewolf presence, but his quick eyes had already turned suspicious. Bonnie nudged Liv, urging her to distract him.

The blonde cleared her throat. "Maybe we don't need the lessons. Some of us already know how to hold our drinks, Kol."

"Is that so?" he pondered, nodding thoughtfully. "Care for a drink then, Goldilocks?"

"I'll need at least three, to deal with your dumb pet names."

His smile grew, suspicion forgotten as he gestured to a man in the far corner of the bar. Within moments, several drinks were in front of their faces. Liv had something tall and amber, Bonnie's looked fruitier, and Davina...had ice in her tumbler and a can of Pepsi. She scoffed in offense but Kol only shrugged.

"Apologies, Davina, but you're underage."

"So are they!"

"Well, there's capable-of-voting-in-primaries underage and then there's you, closer to tweendom. At least they're no longer minors, at any rate. I couldn't care less, for my part, but Marcel gets cranky if we don't observe his rules when it comes to you. And I'm sure you'd rather I didn't get into a spat with your guardian. So there's no side to this argument you'd win, darling."

He smiled at her thoughtlessly, and paid no heed at all to the way Davina's cheeks flushed pink.

Liv didn't bother to hide her gurgle of laughter.

The bar held no traces of feral essence that usually gave away werewolves. Bonnie tamed her disappointment, remembering Luka's warning that the few who were patrons of the bar usually made themselves scarce if Kol or any of the other Mikaelsons were around. Even if Kol seemed open to their presence, the wolves were skittish, and Bonnie couldn't blame them. In the middle of the banter that served as flirtation between Liv and Kol, Bonnie signaled to Davina with a nod of her head.

They made it to the bathroom: a tiny room, with matching tiled walls and floors sporting stains and cracked porcelain. Two unisex stalls with broken knobs revealed browning toilet rims, and both were missing toilet paper on the rolls.

Bonnie could only blink. "You can't be serious," she said, confused. "The Mikaelsons are loaded. Why doesn't Kol have toilet paper in his bar? Or a bleach spray?"

Davina gave another impatient shake of her head, then waved a hand before her in a careless circle. Instantly, the bathroom transformed, turning clean and brighter, the tiles and counters morphing, updated fixtures forming before their eyes as stains and cracks on the tile vanished. The missing toilet paper miraculously appeared on the rolls, soft white and plump.

"There's a glamour," Davina said. "For witches we just wave a hand, every other regular gets a magic password."

"Okaay."

Davina smiled. "Busy nights gets traffic. Some of it Kol doesn't want. Lot of tourists get turned off by the run down."

"Smart," Bonnie conceded, repressing a smirk at the look of pride in Davina's face.

"Yeah, he has a lot of tricks."

"Think he'll let us in on a few of them? Like how we can run into a friendly neighborhood werewolf?"

"You heard him," Davina said. "There's no way he'll help. Klaus won't let you dig into that, Marcel won't let _me_ , and Kol doesn't want either of them coming in here giving him problems. You know how they are by now. One little fight, and people get killed, or a building crumbles to dust."

The bathroom door swung open behind them. A woman with waves of auburn hair highlighted in caramel strolled in, assessing them both quickly as she passed by them, her eyes dropping before she hurried to check herself in the mirror, pinching her cheeks and letting her hair down from her haphazard ponytail. Behind her was another woman, her mouth open in what was obviously mid-comment when it abruptly shut, her teeth clicking audibly as she took in both Davina and Bonnie in the bathroom.

The magic around both their forms were telling, but held no trace of the ancestral New Orleans spirits that emanated from all the local witches. Bonnie smiled politely, puzzled when the pair merely inclined their heads, slow and obvious, and then slid to the furthest corner, as if the large, mystically altered restroom lacked the space to contain the four of them.

Davina shrugged at Bonnie's questioning glance. Their discussion was over, in the presence of these strangers acting strangely.

"Why..." Bonnie couldn't finish the question, uncertain how to word it until it hit her, exactly what bothered her with the way the women had treated her and Davina.

She'd spent her formative years blending into the background, keen on remembering her parents' advice: _stay quiet, be calm, go unnoticed._

They'd bred her to avoid attention. The witches in the restroom had given the impression of being struck dumb by her, just on sight-in other words, the total opposite of inconspicuous. Davina had been reared as a product of the covens and politics in play here, as if the city itself had carried her in its womb-the way she attracted the spotlight was understandable. But Bonnie had only been in town for a month, keeping as low a profile as feasible and making few friends outside of her three grouped Initiates. The only thing she'd done to earn such notice, she realized with a sinking stomach, was be herself: a Bennett.

"It's not like we don't know how to share," Bonnie grumbled. "Were we taking up all the room in there?"

"No. Don't worry about it. Some people from the local covens just need time working off that starstruck phase, that's all. Ancient bloodlines aren't a dime a dozen, at least not around here. I mean look. My family's only been around five centuries and they treat me like I'm a special unicorn. Annoying, but what can you do?"

"Move away?"

Davina snorted, but delicately, like she did everything and it struck Bonnie then how eerily like a special unicorn the younger girl came across sometimes. Meanwhile, her own life had been one of living hidden away under a metaphorical bridge, from the greater supernatural community at large-as if she and her parents had been a reformed family of... _trolls_...trying to pass for normal. The furthest thing from a special unicorn, as it turned out…but it didn't mean she was resentful.

Or so she told herself.

New, uncomfortable thoughts held Bonnie sway, as they resumed their seats.

She caught Davina sliding her a sidelong gaze.

"You'll get used to it," the brunette said simply.

Bonnie's smile was faint, as she cast a look around. "Hope not," she murmured.

-X-x-X-x-X-

Kol kept odd hours-odd, for regular human clientele. As the day reached what could've passed for happy hour at other bars, the smattering of staff in his pub began cleaning, putting things away. The customers inside thinned out considerably.

"What's happening?" Bonnie asked.

" _Siesta,_ " Luka said, as if the single word was enough explanation.

Bonnie and Liv raised their brows, but only Davina cared to elaborate.

"Between five and nine o'clock, everyone clears out. Gives people a chance to unwind, handle business."

"Witches gotta gather, vamps gotta feed," Luka added. "They take it outside. Wayyy outside, like beyond two city blocks. Kol's rules."

"Klaus's," Davina corrected.

It was all so well mapped, Bonnie almost wondered aloud where the patrol officers were. Even here, in defiant Kol's hidey-hole, there was no escaping the influence of his family. His brother.

"Does that also mean us?" Bonnie asked.

"As much as it pains me to deny a lady," came the incorrigibly flirtatious reply from over her shoulder, "it does indeed, love. You see, in the past, I've bitten the hand that feeds me and-well, never quite worked out to my benefit. Learnt from my mistakes and all that rot, I have. So no exceptions, sadly, not even for our most esteemed, lovely guests."

She turned, ready to roll her eyes at the Original but Kol wasn't looking at her or anybody in their group, still camped out in a booth near the bar. Instead his eyes were trained on the door, at an approaching figure.

She recognized the hoodie before she saw the face, then felt her cheeks turn warm.

The door jangled a greeting as it opened.

Kai walked in.

She'd seen enough of him plenty around the compound, merely in passing. He rarely looked at her, or at least she never met his gaze for more than a second or two where nothing but detached acknowledgement flitted briefly to his eyes.

Yet anytime they were in the same room, the air felt tight, as if there was never enough oxygen in the atmosphere to contain both her and the Gemini wild card. She didn't trust him, yet he'd been the only one to lay down the cards for her, fair and square. Only...the hand he'd unveiled mostly seemed to be ones Klaus had tried to keep close to his chest. Maybe it was because of that, she couldn't unclench around him, the way she tried now to make herself grow comfortable in Klaus's company.

The facade of an understanding had paved the way for it, breaking ground for a superficial friendship to spring up between her and the hybrid. Sometimes she even sought Klaus out now, to ask about history or ceremony or any number of topics that he seemed more than willing to clarify for her. She didn't trust half of the things he said either, but only because half of the things he said to her were rooted in flattery or complements that she waved away. The other half, she gobbled up. When he wanted to, Klaus spoke so eloquently; he wasn't just an artist, there was something of the poet in him that gave the Original a way with words. The millennia of existence under his belt carried weight. She'd never admit it aloud, but she liked hearing him speak sometimes, just to hear _him_.

Once, Kai had walked in on them, in the Mikaelson library.

-X-x-X-x-X-

 _"I don't get the obsession," Bonnie said, flipping through the pages of a slender, aged text that Genevieve had insisted for her to take-the single word_ _ **Renascituras**_ _spelled out across the front in worn lettering. "Why does proving our mettle as witches mean messing with the afterlife? In my book, dead stays dead. It's called resting in peace."_

 _From his seat, Klaus flicked a glance towards her._

 _"A worthy thought." His tone rumbled, low and deep with amusement. "In my own experience, I would have benefited quite a bit from my enemies staying buried. Alas," he paused, sighing. "A witch's work is never done. Not even time and worms can interfere."_

 _That sounded far too much like a juicy story needing telling. Taming the urge to ask for the rest, Bonnie laid her book down on her lap, studying the man seated across. With a tiny hint of furrowed brow, he stayed perusing the file she'd found him inspecting when she'd entered the room. She hadn't meant to intrude, and had said as much earlier as she tried to backtrack but he'd insisted she stay. He'd asked how the preparations were going for the Induction ceremony, and that, of course, had launched her into a round of griping._

 _Part of presenting themselves to the New Orleans covens guild included a song-and-dance from each Initiate, involving rebirth. Most of the novices were excited-someone actually had a caged jaguar somewhere here in the compound, in place of the typical sacrificial lamb. Luka said something about exhuming his great-grandmother's bones, from a hundred years ago, to rejoin the land of the living for one night._

 _Creepy, was what it really was. A few of the initiates were trying to go cute, and go small. A cat or a dog._

 _"If it's so disturbing to you," Klaus said now, his eyes back on his file. "Try a nightingale. Tiny thing to bring back from the dead. Use your magic to let it sing and the crowd will be entertained as it flutter its wings out of the window. Far less controversial than raising a dusty ancestor, I guarantee. We can all forget its existence five minutes after it flies away."_

 _Around her, he was always one with tidy answers. She almost mocked it, but then stopped to consider his suggestion, which compared to others, wasn't actually bad although the execution of it struck her as iffy. Her magic was volatile, rather than demure. A pretty showing, if she was successful, wasn't going to win her any awards but might stave off more talk about her reputation for inconsistency._

 _"Whatever you do, Bonnie, I beg of you-don't go to Esther for advice."_

 _"Why not?"_

 _The idea had never entered Bonnie's head, but she refrained from saying so, gripped by a perverse need to make him sweat it out._

 _"She's been around long enough," she said lightly. "Probably has lots of neat ideas to share."_

 _"And a long list of bad ones, Bonnie." He dipped one shoulder in a cool, elegant shrug. "My dearly departed sister Freya's still a sore point for my mother. Esther would be thrilled to have her back. But between you and me, I have enough family dabbling in witchcraft. I'll thank you not to swell those ranks."_

 _Bonnie's eyes widened. He couldn't possibly mean..._

 _"You think she'd ask me to raise your sister from the dead? I don't have that kinda firepower."_

 _"One never knows with you Bennetts."_

 _"Klaus, there are literally dozens of Initiates every year with blood potent enough to do that." She peered suspiciously at him. "Has anyone tried?"_

 _"No witch in New Orleans can attempt such a thing without forfeiting his life in return." The edge in his voice told her that it had been done, nonetheless, and people had been sacrificed. Another story that needed telling, Bonnie supposed, although this time she had no desire to hear more of it. "But do relax, Bonnie. Your presence here isn't to set into motion another Mikaelson family reunion."_

 _Her gaze didn't shift from his as he stood, making his way over, dropping to crouch before her and peering at the book in her lap. His finger traced the spine softly, then continued past the book to trace the knot of delicate bone on her wrist. He encircled her wrist, squinting as if attempting to work out a puzzle as he turned her hand over, then traced the lines on her palms, his skittering touch on her skin drawing out goosebumps._

 _"If you could unclench, sweetheart," he murmured. "You'd see you're only here to embrace your heritage. You might be surprised to know in my many lifetimes of existence, I spent my share of time living in the shadows. I know what it means to hide."_

 _His eyes met hers now, intent, earnest, but also a little sad. Whatever words he might utter next, she would believe. It was laid bare for her, for the first time maybe since they'd met. None of that prince charming personality was out now. Instead, she saw the bone-deep weariness of a man who had simply lived too long._

 _"It is nice, isn't it? I once knew a man who told me a life without ambition is one half lived. Of course I agree with him, and yet...I miss the quiet, sometimes." His gaze broke off, turned faraway. "When I was a boy, surrounded by too many of my brothers and sisters, I used to disappear into the woods, alone for days-weeks at a time. Nobody but Elijah bothered to look all that hard. I always came home anyway."_

 _She wanted to break the spell he was casting between them-throw in a stupid quip, something maybe about being a lone wolf-but amber flashed in his blue gaze briefly, before his pupils grew out, eating up the color._

 _"Recently, I've entertained thoughts about going back into hiding."_

 _"They'd send a platoon out to look for you," she said, hating that her own voice came out more like a caress. "Plus you'd get bored. Who knows how many necks you'd break just to pass the time?"_

 _"Now that tells me you've been listening to Stefan a little too much, witchling. It wasn't all murder and mayhem in the Twenties with him. We hobnobbed, too. Did he never share about our trip to Paris, and running into a group of very drunk, very loud, very obnoxious American writers? I almost killed Hemingway," he confessed, his tone colored in almost fond afterthought._

 _She laughed, genuinely appalled but unable to hide her amusement. "Seriously? You're one of those people, aren't you?"_

 _"What people?"_

 _"The ones who have an anecdote for everything."_

 _His distant look turned heavy lidded, as his face drifted closer to hers. "You could say that. I am sort of an old man."_

 _She smiled. "You're also kind of a dork."_

 _It was his turn to laugh. The sound warmed her chest. She had never heard it before from him, she realized. At least not without it sounding polite or patronizing or anything except what it was now—real, honest to goodness, good old fashioned mirth._

 _"I confess, I doubt I would be bored, if my escape plans were to come to fruition. You see, I plan to bring company."_

 _"Oh? Who would that be, Klaus?"_

 _"I'll give you one guess, Bonnie."_

 _He'd told her before, that he'd watched her long enough. She'd never tried to dissect it. Quantifying that vague bit of time hit a nerve for her. She and her parents had been living off the radar her entire life. If she found out Klaus had been monitoring her since she'd been in diapers-that was certifiably insane. Cringe-worthy. She tried to bring those thoughts up now, and the disgusted feelings they engendered in her._

 _But his nose was brushing her hair, as he crouched there tilting his face up as if any moment now, they would fall into kissing._

 _His lips looked soft. They'd kissed before, she told herself. She'd brushed them all off. If he kissed her now..._

 _"Klaus," she whispered._

 _"Yes, sweetheart?"_

 _CLANG!_

 _A loud crash jolted Bonnie almost out of her seat. Gasping, she looked up, tracing the noise to the piano at the far corner. The lid had been open moments ago. Now, it was shut, almost wearing an air of disapproval. She frowned at it in confusion._

 _Klaus, meanwhile, was looking over her shoulder, clear irritation blooming across his now-tight features._

 _"Taken a wrong turn, Gemini?"_

 _Bonnie stifled another gasp, dreading the thought of Liv walking in on this. She'd never hear the end of it now._

 _But she turned-_

 _-and found another Parker standing in the doorway, mocking the scene with icy gray eyes, set in a face accented with an ever-present comma angled in the form of a smirk._

 _Bonnie's dread settled heavy in her gut, as if she'd swallowed a brick for fun and was now surprised to find herself ill. What was she expecting, living here in the thick of hybrids, vampires, and witches?_

 _"Nope," Kai said, leaning his tall form against the doorframe. "Looking for you, actually. But, please. Carry on. No rush or anything. It's not like Marcel isn't short on manpower to keep people from getting any more unwieldy, now that an_ _ **entire family**_ _," Kai said, emphasizing the last two words, "has gone missing from your happy furball campers squatting along the embankments."_

 _"They're not squatting," Klaus ground out._

 _"No? Whaddaya call cheap tents and people dressed in rags, living on the fringe of society? I'd say you're sending out a pretty clear message where exactly on the totem pole the wolves rank here in this city. And making yourself look like the good guy while you're at it. Very clever. Round of applause for you, K-man."_

 _For the first time, Kai met her stare. His smirk waned just a bit, before he waved a dismissive hand._

 _"Ah. I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I? You're a big fan, I know, Bonnie." He paused, as in contemplation of something amusing as his smile widened now. "A big tool, I mean."_

 _She gritted her teeth at his words._

 _"But anyway, don't let me spoil the moment. I'll just wait here 'til you guys are done." He looked around, pretending to busy himself with the decorations along one wall. "Oh, hey! A Babushka!" He strode to a shelf and picked up a green figurine, toying with it until he opened it in half, and took a smaller replica of the same figure out from its depths. "These are so cool. I always wanted one."_

 _Kai didn't know it, but Bonnie almost wanted to thank him as much as she was itching to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze hard. His timing couldn't have been more perfect._

 _A growl buzzed near her ear, as Klaus shot to his feet and then, in a blur of movement, ended up across the room, near where Kai stood. The Gemini had anticipated it, spinning towards the hybrid. They faced each other almost nose to nose, Klaus glaring at the carefree grin Kai tossed his way._

 _"This is awkward," Kai said. "I wanna say I'm flattered you're trying to pull me into this dynamic, but uh, well-I just have very specific ideas of a threesome that in no way involve another man. But, hey, remind me to introduce you to my brother Luke."_

 _"Cease your noise, siphon."_

 _Kai raised his hands, then moved past the hybrid, shoving him by the shoulder. "I take it you're done trying to impress the new girl," Kai drawled. "Care to hear the rest of my report? Or should I go find mommy dearest?"_

 _Before he could speak again, and risk the chance of getting dismembered judging by the way Klaus's nostrils were twitching into an angry flare, Bonnie grabbed her book and made her way to the door. She had to pass Kai on the way out to do so. He didn't bother stepping out of the way as she walked by._

 _Somehow, the back of his hand brushed her arm. A surge of magic engulfed her, spinning the room into a fuzzy circle as she stilled, trying to gain her bearings. Chaos and hunger flooded her in a wild rush, heating her veins while her mouth went dry. When she looked up, Kai was wrapped in magic, tendrils of it weaving around his form, snakelike, then reaching out to her. Unbidden, she leaned into it-and him._

 _He eyed her warily, his own mouth opening and closing, before he clicked it shut and swallowed. Audibly. She blinked at him, puzzled and fighting a sense of high. What the hell?_

 _"You should go," he said, the sound of his voice too low and rough, like stone grating against stone. "The grown-ups are talking now."_

 _She felt parched just looking at him-a tiny, half-formed instinct to get a taste of him would fix that, something in her was urging. She wanted to listen. But there he went, opening his mouth. Killing her newfound urges._

 _Clenching a hand into a fist, a vase nearby shot into the air. Halfway across the room, it upended itself. Along with a spray of water, thorny flowers fell on Kai's head, landing on the floor at his feet as he broke into chuckles._

-X-x-X-x-X-

What got to her the most was that of all people to witness that moment of weakness in Bonnie, it'd been _him_. Kai never failed to put her out of sorts. And that exchange with Klaus had already left her feeling wobbly-headed, just a little. It'd been her best glimpse at the man behind the monster. The only moment of sincerity she didn't second-guess.

As intimate as the moment had gotten, as relieved as she'd been that someone had come along to interrupt it, Bonnie also resented the sense of disjointedness it coaxed out. As if there was never going to be the right time to get to know Klaus more, and by extension, get a better idea of the plans being juggled in the air here in New Orleans.

Because sometimes, she wanted to tell him: _I need to know everything. Your game plan. Your mom's. The wolves are my best bet to finding the right answers._

It had all started, months ago, with the spell to keep the wolves in check in New Orleans, and to keep the Travelers from encroaching even more into Portland and Mystic Falls, by way of an alliance with the wolves. Here now, Bonnie had her best shot of finding the source of it all, digging into why Klaus the vampire/werewolf hybrid seemed so open to working with the half of the population that a part of him belonged to, while all but turning his back on those who represented the other half of him.

Biologically and on principle, it was wrong. She knew it.

He had to know it.

Grams and her mom had never said so out loud, but in her bones, Bonnie felt the burden of her duty. She'd been yanked out of her normal life because of it. Her family had probably never expected her to go this far, but it was the only thing to do as a Bennett witch.

Liv understood her, had confessed to feeling the same weight of expectation from a few members of her family and the other Geminis, out in Portland.

Things needed sorting out-things needed _doing_.

Not that Grams, or Liv's mom, or her sister the great Gemini coven leader was coming out of the woodwork in droves to help. Now that she'd been exposed to the politics of covens in New Orleans, Bonnie knew the presence of Sheila Bennett or Josette Parker would incite something-not a riot, but possibly grumbling. More than the usual.

It was enough, Bonnie supposed, that her grandmother kept calling, kept tabs on the friends she'd made _("Davina is your best ally, Luka is fine but beware his dad Jonas")_ , and that Abby had surprised her with letters-encrypted, all of them, with the secret message that she and dad had temporarily moved to a suburb an hour outside of New Orleans.

She supposed it gave her parents peace of mind to be so near, but that only added to her list of worries. If anything went wrong, now her parents could be touched by it.

Her mom wouldn't be able to show her face, but Bonnie had had enough odd fish-in-a-bowl moments—and her hair rising from the back of her neck-to understand she was being watched. Only now, instead of suspecting cloaked Geminis, or unknown werewolves, or hidden Travelers, or some other supernatural entity...now she imagined her dad also, dropping by just to check in on her.

The Induction ceremony couldn't come fast enough. Which meant all these loose ends needed tying up before then, and she also, most of all, needed to work on a spell now, according to Genevieve and Vincent. Reanimate that which had died, and present it to the nine city covens.

Things needed doing, Bonnie was a person who'd signed up to do them, and one of those things was finding her way to the wolves' camp.

So now, with these thoughts whirling through her mind, she sipped from her drink at the booth, eyeing Kai Parker through her peripheral vision with renewed interest. He ambled towards Kol, nodding sparsely. Surprisingly, his manner lacked the irreverence he usually wore around the other Mikaelsons. Even more surprising, Kol didn't toss any barbed threats by way of a greeting at the Gemini.

Did Kai and Kol actually...get along?

Bonnie fought annoyance. This would've been easier if the youngest male member of the Original was more like his brothers, and treated Kai like the outsider that he technically was. Now who knew, but that Kol might warn Kai about her and the other Initiates' appearance here, seemingly out of the blue. Kol had been too distracted with tending to the bar and other clientele to pry into their presence.

Kai and his suspicious nature would have no such distractions.

Kol grabbed his jacket from behind the counter, nodding up to the Gemini as they both seemed by mutual unspoken agreement, to decide to leave the bar.

"All right, ladies and gent," said the Original. "I'm officially closed for business. Please do come back later and all that good stuff."

Davina chanced a glance his way, bashful. "We were waiting on you. Can you give us a ride?"

Kol scoffed. "You have perfectly functional legs, darling. You walked here, walk yourselves back home. I have people waiting on me."

"People? I see only Kai."

"Look harder," Kol said brightly, tossing his head out the window. On the sidewalk outside, two women waited. They were the same women from earlier, who had walked inside the bathroom, acting as if they'd stumbled into celebrities while Bonnie and Davina strategized. Now they talked together, free and easy, smiling, probably knowing Kol was watching them. And Kai.

Did Kol and Kai actually get along enough...to double date?

Bonnie worked not to let her jaw go slack, as she saw both men grinning cockily out the window, practically winking at the other women.

"Ugh," she muttered under her breath, hearing a similar sound nearby. She found Liv wearing a nauseated look.

"Kai brought his car," Liv said, before rounding on her brother. "You never go anywhere without your bag of weapons and torture devices in the trunk. Give us a ride."

"No way, sis. I'm _ocupado_."

But even as he said this, he found his way to Bonnie's side, his head dipped to the right as he studied her lazily. "Why don't you just call His Hybrid Highness to send his chauffeur for you?"

Bonnie eyed him back, trying her best not to appear transparent. Things needed doing. She needed an in on the wolf camp. Kol's bar had failed to produce a wolf or two for them to try their hand at.

But Kai...he scouted the camps with Marcel. Without actually being around Marcel, to boot, if the reports that Kai liked to work alone were true. Which meant there would be nobody to run interference, except for Kai. And what would he really care if Bonnie wandered among the camp a little, for intel gathering of her own?

Sticking close to Kai, all of a sudden, was their best shot...

Bonnie gave Kai a sunny smile. Then tamed it, once she saw his customary smirk fade in mild shock at her reception. She cleared her throat, frowning at her drink.

 _Her drink._

"I should, right?" she said goofily, acting as if the idea was genius, and so was he. She patted his chest approvingly, trying not to register the way it felt like granite beneath her fingertips. But her hand lingered anyway, because she was supposed to be drunk. Now that granite turned warm, the longer she touched him.

Bonnie almost dropped her gaze and her hand both, when his always-cool eyes flickered like candles.

"You let her get shit-faced?" he asked Kol in a measured voice.

"It was one drink, mate! I'm not responsible for the lightweights. Jesus. One drink. Come on, Bonnie, you're embarrassing yourself. A gel needs to build her tolerance."

She ignored Kol, fumbling in her purse for her phone, slurring out the rest of her words.

" _Golleeee_ , why didn't I think of it, nowatImean? _Sooo_ stupid."

She squinted at her phone, trying to ignore Luka signing to her, appalled.

"What are you doing?" he mouthed silently, behind Kai and Kol's backs. Beside him, Davina and Liv exchanged knowing glances.

"Klaus'll be here in a jiffy," Bonnie crowed, appearing delighted as she started dialing a number. It wasn't one belonging to Klaus. It was an office fax number, and she was going to spend a long time working out the buttons before the call went out.

"But I'm really really _really_ super wasted right now," she added in a whisper under her breath, feeling Kai's gaze burning her features. She chanced a look up. He frowned at her, suspicious. But also-

-she willed herself not to be swayed-not to drop the act because she was inciting something here, all kinds of bad ideas-

 _-possessive._

She'd had an inkling, before that day in the library when their magic had joined for one brief, hot instant. The way he acted, the role he played in spreading breadcrumbs for her to follow, when it came to presenting Klaus as someone she needed to guard against. It was almost sweet, and she was grateful in her own way. But then he acted like such a dick around her, sometimes she gave herself amnesia, involuntarily, forgetting the nice things he tried to do. Like be truthful.

He liked her, and wasn't a fan of Klaus spending time with her. And he'd been in her damn room.

"But it'll be fiiiine," she said, her hand waving out in the air, accidentally smacking the pendant light that hung over the counter. She smiled tipsily at Davina. "'Cuz Klaus-he's a _genelmin_." Then Bonnie let out a giggle, adding in a loud stage whisper: "Except when he's _not_."

On the other end of the line, the phone picked up. Inconspicuously, her finger ended the call but she kept the phone pressed to her ear, and then ran outside, to the street, keeping a side view of the others inside the bar. She tossed a hazy grin at Kai and Kol's dates still waiting on the sidewalk, then pretended to be thrilled at her phone.

"Oh, hiiii, Klau-"

Her cell flew out of her hands, onto the street. Promptly, a car appeared, flying beyond speed limits, running over her phone. She heard the crack, saw the remains of her device laying in pieces on the concrete, then had the presence of mind to pretend to wobble her way to the street and ponder it.

With real dismay.

Damn.

Okay, so Kai _really_ wasn't a fan of Klaus sending a car for her. And yet...she turned a glare back at the bar. Behind the glass, Kai wiggled his fingers at her in a happy-go-lucky wave, then moseyed out of _Houdini's_ at the same time that she fake-drunk-stalked towards him. They met halfway, him staying on the curb. She had to look up even more than usual just to scowl at him properly.

"You're dead."

"You're incredibly petite."

His body flew backwards, landing against the glass door. He oofed out a grunt, managing to land on his knees when he fell. The 'H' in _Houdini's_ wobbled from its precarious perch. Bonnie sent a vindictive squint. The letter dropped off the glass door, hitting Kai on his back, leaving the sorry remains of OUD N S to front the establishment.

"Ow."

Served him right.

"I see someone's been working on her _Motus_ ," he said cheekily, dusting off his pants as he stood. "Such a diligent student."

The others joined them. Kol locked up the bar, moving towards the pair of women gawking at the scene, uncertainty in their expressions while Bonnie kept glowering at the Gemini siphon who had destroyed her cell phone. The plan had been hers, so she was partly to blame, but there was something called overkill, and Kai had gone beyond that.

"So," Liv said, sounding bored. "Is it a yes on that ride?"

Abruptly, all signs of humor left Kai's face, replaced instead with pure calculation.

"Yup," he said, grabbing Bonnie's arm, dragging her away from the group.

"Are you ditching us, mate?" Kol called out.

"Give the other three a ride back," Kai replied. "I've got Drunky McDrunkerson."


	7. Chapter 7

_**Ch. 7**_

The answer to her "where are you taking me?" had been pending for nearly half an hour now. Somehow, she knew they weren't heading back to their quarters, though he'd said nothing about it. The silence between them lasted a while, longer even than the vast stretch of unkempt trees and muddy ground that faced her on both sides of the country road. A bruising sky ahead warned her of the looming night. She gave sidelong glances at the man behind the wheel, his unruffled demeanor betrayed only by a tic along his jaw that winked back at her the longer she stared. Sometimes he returned the assessment. He didn't smile any of those times, not fully anyway, and she struggled to hide one threatening to form at the corner of her own lips as she congratulated herself for ruffling his feathers. But he didn't need to see her gloating, so she chose to keep her gaze out of the window for the rest of the ride.

He cleared his throat several times. Whether that was a preface to something, she didn't bother to find out, keeping her face averted as the wind nearly sandpapered her cheeks and nose. She'd had to roll her window down almost from the start, needing the fresh air, the noise of the wind, the distraction of pushing her hair out of her face. His scent had carried over to her the second he loaded her into the passenger seat, still thinking she was too drunk to maneuver herself.

It wasn't the hint of cologne, but of cinder and sweat and the lingering effects of a spell that put her on edge. _Where had he spent the day?_ she wondered. It wasn't hard to picture him loping along cobblestoned streets, from St. Charles to Canal, or ducking into and out of trolleys or, probably more to his style, making his way nimbly down the tracks and avoiding being holed up in any one particular crowded space for long. His lazy movements were deceiving, the kind that could suit someone who needed to pick his way through a makeshift gypsy camp of mistrustful werewolves. The tangy hint of sweat in the air told her that last guess was more likely than the others. She could ask him. If it was Klaus, she already would have. But a part of her liked imagining his adventures, and wished she had the freedom, like him, to indulge himself wherever and whenever. Asking him invited the chance that reality would fall short of fantasy. What if he told her he'd just spent the day at the gym?

The mystery of Kai Parker had turned into an idle past time for Bonnie. She'd even wondered about his quarters in the Mikaelson stronghold.

"Where's your room, anyway?" she blurted out, halfway picturing him surrounded by candles and lines of a pentagram on the floor, a book or a scroll balanced on his lap, and his brows furrowed in concentration while sweaty, dewy drops formed on-

"Somewhere only I know," he sing-songed.

She groaned.

"Part of the deal. I stay in enemy territory, I get to make myself as difficult a target as possible," he finished in false cheer.

"So...you get to cloak your room?"

"Of course. I told Liv to do the same, but," he made a pish sound, waving his hand. "Stupid is as stupid does, as Forrest said."

She peered at him again. "Who's that?"

She braced herself for a look she'd gotten used to seeing from her three fellow Initiates, the one they wore anytime they mentioned a name that everyone was supposed to know. Liv, Luka, and Davina as a product of their environments had a long list of friends and acquaintances that included the supernatural community's VIPs-none of whom Bonnie had ever heard of. In time the wonder that crossed their faces soon gave way to impatient explanations and matter-of-fact dismissal that eventually, she would get to know such-and-such or so-and-so. Bonnie learned to shrug it off.

Kai's look of patent, rapid-blinking disbelief now was harder to ignore.

" _Forrest Gump_ ," he said in a soft near-scoff. "You don't know _Forrest Gump._ "

She crossed her arms, scowling. "Is he some kind of super witch who taught you all your tricks?"

He bit his lip, bringing a hand to his mouth.

"What, wrong species?" She frowned. "Was he a vampire who tried to kill you and made you the not-so-lovable paranoid jerk you are today?"

Something like a choke escaped him, as she stared in growing suspicion. Whoever this Gump was, her guesses were clearly following a cold trail. Forrest, like River and Sky, could also be used as a girl's name. And by Kai's reaction, he didn't view Forrest as a respected elder or an enemy. Maybe Forrest was his girlfriend, some kind of Gemini princess that awed everyone. Maybe his girlfriend-like him-thought she was smarter than the rest of the world.

"Dumb name," Bonnie muttered.

Kai's laugh filled the cabin.

"Parents are awful," she continued, sullen even to her own ears.

"No argument here," he agreed readily. "I killed one of mine."

"Some of them are so flakey they inflict names like that on babies who can't defend themselves."

He only gave a nodding shrug, his features schooled into commiseration. But his eyes were merry now as he looked her over. "What's the worst your parents ever did, hmm? Aside from hiding your powers and your legacy from you nearly all your life, I mean." A dimple stole into the side of one cheek as he smirked. "They limit your TV time one too many, Bonnie?"

Her annoyance ebbed as she considered his question. The trees by now had given way to overgrown shrubs lining a muddy road, littered here and there with carrion as the narrowing path led, eventually, to a rusty gated fence. A large yellow sign (that once had probably been white) read in brown lettering (that once had probably been red): "No Trespassing - Violators Will Be Prosecuted." Atop it a sea of graffiti splayed across its surface, most hard to read, except for the one of a fist with a long middle finger raised in defiance, and a symmetrical W wedged perfectly on top of the fingernail. The car stopped right before the sign, Kai killing the engine and pocketing the keys before he leaned back in his seat and waited. She continued eyeing the finger poking the W, and soon enough it wasn't so much a letter of the alphabet as it was a plump representation of an isolated ass.

Bonnie snorted. When she turned her head to Kai, he was staring right at her, his eyes offering all the clarity of the murky water that surrounded them in this shitty swampland rife with political and social minefields for her. This trip now, here with him, was a mistake. Why had she even come? He hadn't even brought her close to where she needed to be, in the wolves' camp.

"My parents," she said, letting an undercurrent of warning sharpen her words, "taught me how to survive. Now that I know what I know, I'm happy I made it two decades without dying. They did that, on their own. I'm happy _they're_ not dead."

She stepped out of the car; he wasn't long in following. The chain-link fence had been gutted on one side, a sloppy job that looked like the work of a poor cutter. The jagged opening meant others had made their way through, uncomfortably. It shouted nothing more than 'Tetanus' to Bonnie. Warily, she watched Kai study it, his features bored. He could easily make the opening a non-problem, with whatever magic trick he seemed to always carry up his sleeve. Instead he raised his eyebrows expectantly at her, then at the fence, in a manner suggestive of all those times he'd worn the slavedriver hat and made the entire class of Initiates retool their defensive spells over and over.

Bonnie huffed.

"You did not _seriously_ bring me here for a one-on-one session."

"You're shaking off the alcohol, you're here, you've got a biiiig rite of passage to complete and wow people with at the Induction ceremony." His hands landed on his hips as he nodded to himself, giving her another once over. ""Yeah, I think you're ready for a private lesson, young Skywalker." He looked away, then back again. "You know who _that_ is, right?"

Taming the urge to roll her eyes, Bonnie stepped to the fence and got to work.

-X-x-X-x-X-

She burned her way through the fence, naturally. Just as naturally, the effort produced the same end result. Not only did the fence burn, but so did large swaths of trees and hedges surrounding it, along with parts of the cracked, fading concrete. Kai had had the foresight to park the car further back, keeping it and himself well out of harm's way. While the flames hadn't affected her any, and actually casting the spell had been easier than the last time she tried, keeping it all under control had cost her.

Kai whistled a jaunty tune as they passed through a small tunnel. Halfway, an enormous downed clown head offered a sad, dilapidated smile at them. Kai kicked its nose absently, pieces of it crumbling apart. Bonnie-face and shirt sweaty from the spell, pants covered now in grime from passing through one too many dirty corners and turnstiles-tracked her torturer with baleful eyes.

"What are we doing here, Kai?" she demanded again.

Here being the zombie remains of what once had been a Six Flags amusement park. The hurricane years ago had decimated the site, flooding it, before leaving the rest of the work to time and neglect. The city had forsaken the roller coasters, the lifeless shops and buildings, the defunct rides. There was nothing here now but stretches of loops and tracks left abandoned, misbegotten walls and fixtures on the verge of falling in on themselves, faded paint married to obscene graffiti in an explosion of jarring colors, and stray weeds. Random birds flitted from their nests to forage unsuccessfully, before they, too, departed.

He ignored her, weaving his way around the battered, faded horses and dolphins on a rusty carousel ride. In the wan light of a pale moon, she could just make out the entropy welcoming her and Kai. Paint worn thin, the collection of once-bright animals clung desperately to bent and battered poles.

"Great," she said to a unicorn, its horn chipped off the base, "just me and a lunatic, roaming a lonely nightmare."

Kai paused beside one of the dolphins, half of its tail missing. He brushed off the seat before taking it, backwards, so he could face her. When their eyes met, her grip on the broken unicorn horn tightened.

"That was kinda deep," he said conversationally.

"You're kind of nuts."

"You would be too, if you weren't so uptight."

"Is that why you're such an ass to me, because you want me to go nuts? Cut loose?"

He shrugged again, his head bobbing, the expression on his face perfectly transparent as he scoffed a quick, "Yeah."

Then the ride began to spin, tangled notes of Muzak blaring to life. The effects of his sudden, silent spell coursed throughout the carousel, weak lights blinking haphazardly in time to the spinning. She stumbled a bit, no real danger of falling, but he caught her anyway, his fingers sure around her arms. The sight of his hands on her bare, damp skin stilled her. He didn't move either, except for a slight twitch of his thumb. A thought formed against her better judgment-the timing was too much for her to dismiss.

"If I cut loose enough," she murmured, so soft he had to bend his ear closer, her mouth nearly touching his neck, "for long enough, and you siphoned me...would it juice you up forever?"

The twitching thumb had fallen into a different pattern-more like a disjointed rub against her skin. His neck being so close, she saw his large Adam's apple bob wildly when he swallowed. His breathing hitched.

"I don't know."

"Do you want to try?"

"Depends, Bonnie." She raised her head, their noses inches apart as they stared at each other, unblinking. "Do _you_ want to die?"

She shook her head.

His thumb stopped moving, yet his hold stayed. "I-I'm not looking for the Energizer bunny. Well, I am-but not right now. And not-" he stopped, shaking his head, something rueful in its movement. "I don't expect you to be my bunny." He grimaced. "That came out wrong."

"You think?"

"Why don't you smell more like alchohol?"

"Probably because I'm not drunk."

"You smell crispy."

That one arched her brow; she caught him wincing, his eyes abruptly dropping down to the ground before they quickly climbed back up, resting intently on her face.

"And nice. Crispy and nice." When he frowned, Bonnie ignored once again her mental warning bells. "You're not drunk."

"No."

He squinted. Danger had never before so blatantly stared her in the face; some perverse need to confront it urged her on. "And...were you ever?"

"From one drink? Kol wasn't lying about that. I can hold my own, Kai. I'm not some innocent...sacrificial virgin."

She'd never been the type to ascribe to all or nothing. Living under the radar meant living in incrementals. Baby steps. The caution that had guided her from her earliest memories, echoing in her brain as her parents' voices, went mute the longer Kai's narrow-eyed stare met hers. Her head felt woozy, maybe a result of the carousel's movements, or maybe something else. She didn't let herself dwell on it; she couldn't, with this one standing before her, clearly spinning his own mental wheels. If she hid behind her usual tactics, if she didn't let him in even a little, he might form objections, or prejudice-or worse, plots of his own that might counter hers. Stepping back, dropping her gaze, she hopped off the carousel and hoped Kai missed how unsteady her feet were. Going with her gut, going against her voice of reason, didn't have to mean obliterating her personal zone around dangerous men. It seemed to be a constant thing now, since arriving in this city...first with Klaus, and now with Kai. They were moths to her flame. She no longer had the inclination to end this pull between herself and the two men. Something was wrong with her.

This time, she bought herself a few minutes, enough to find a rickety wooden track and follow its path, precarious though it was. The set of cars resting near the bottom of the tracks still wore all of its wheels, though the seats had been stripped of every last one but the back car. She sat there, waiting, schooling her thoughts into order until warmth and a shadow blocked the trickle of moonlight that touched her.

"Much as I want to flatter myself you connived your way into just basking in my company," came the deep, beguiling tone. "I wasn't born yesterday. So whaddaya want from me, hmm?"

"You taught us how to counter hexes, grilled us on giving aneurysms and snapping vampires' necks until I felt like snapping _your_ neck." She faced him. "What about the werewolves?"

"What about them?"

"You scout their camps with Marcel and his crew. You must know a lot about them by now." She shrugged, trying for casual. "Why haven't we practiced against one?"

"You think you're ready to fight a four-hundred pound furball of teeth, claws, and mass destruction?"

"Why not? It's a supernatural predator I could run into one day. We're sort of in a war against them and the Travelers, right?"

He chuckled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he studied the area around them. "Unfortunately, the only available werewolves are ones from the camp. I'd be stepping on some really big, hairy toes if I snatched one to use as a practice dummy in your training. Wouldn't want to break the tenuous peace they've got going with Klaus, would you? He'd get even poutier than he is now and-ugh-who needs that?"

"Fine. No fighting. What about...I don't know. Field trips to the wolf camps?"

"Lemme think." He pursed his mouth as if considering it deeply. "No."

"Not all of us," she added hurriedly. "Anybody interested in learning more about them. It wouldn't be so hard to bring one of us along on your scouting trips, would it?"

The wood creaked in protest as he leaned a hip against the car, slouching indifferently. If it had been a month ago, she might have been fooled. Bonnie hunched over in her seat, a hand on her chin as she too stared out at the bleak landscape the derelict park offered. She liked it, despite everything, sensing a kinship in its forlorn nature, getting a small thrill in knowing something else in the world existed in a state of abject abandonment. On first glance, the sight had been depressing, yet the longer she wandered here allowing its shadows to claim her, the more relaxed she grew.

"They'd all have the connips," said Kai, sounding amused. "Cute little Bennett novice running around with _moi_? The blacksheep Gemini siphon?" He laughed. "Oh, boy."

"Doubt it," she replied detachedly. "They made you a mentor, didn't they? If you bring me along to the wolf camps, just so I can get my feet wet-can't you say it's part of the training?"

"Sooo, what you're really asking for," he paused, scratching his head, "are private lessons?"

The way he spoke made the scenario sound slightly awkward and she didn't think he meant to-she could better imagine him infusing innuendo into the question, with any other girl. She'd been around him long enough to know how, without a blink of an eye, he could make himself sound like he was turned on, especially in the weirdest place and the worst moments. It was part and parcel of his tactic to keep everyone else off-balance, she figured. Innuendo, she could've easily ignored. But this...Kai was fidgeting, as if the thought of testing his boundaries with the Mikaelsons made him twitchy. Or was it the thought of having to spend extra time with her? Was she such a terrible pupil?

Grimacing, she said, "I've been practicing cloaking spells. Nobody would even have to know I'm there. And...if something happens, I've gotten better. I broke that vampire's spine the other day from long-range and it only took-"

"Twenty-nine seconds, and you didn't break his spine first, you broke his pinky finger." He sucked air in through his teeth, crinkling his eyes. "Not exactly bowling anyone over with the offensive spells there. Really, Bonnie, you knew he wasn't one of the volunteer fangers. The ones I bring in for lethal practice have been sentenced anyway by the city council. You know, for crimes of murder and mayhem." How he spoke that last bit seemed as if he would've liked to have joined. "Since they'll be getting roasted and toasted anyway, they might as well be useful in the process."

"Speaking of roast, if we run into trouble, I can always use my fire. Nobody's better than me with that."

His brows raised, he nodded in a non-committal gesture. "Mm."

And now he sounded bored once more, inflicting the impression on her, like always, of being a third-rate, fringe-witch poser. Was it an improvement over awkward? She wasn't sure. It struck her that this effort was going to waste. Restlessness surged, because if he wasn't going to help her, her next bet was to appeal to Marcel himself, to let her shadow someone on his crew on their next scouting mission. Marcel was more approachable than Kai anyway despite being a member of the bloodthirsty undead. Maybe she would've been better off finding him first.

Bonnie stood, struggling against feeling lame somehow.

"It's late," she said after a moment, her gaze averted. "We should go. They'll be looking for me."

"Don't."

His voice sounded hoarse. She snuck a look and found him peering at her, his apathy from moments ago now replaced with a frowning intensity, the kind that brought lines between his brows and made her wonder if he thought she was going to hijack his car and leave him behind here. She should, he deserved it, the ass.

"Do you know why I'm here?" he asked, appearing torn as he looked at her.

To creep her out, she once would have said, but now she only returned his stare with a confused one of her own. Instead of mocking her, he scrambled inside the car. His chest pressed against her shoulder, so cramped was the space they shared in the rundown seats of a misbegotten roller coaster. His head bent towards her, and in his low voice that carried a hint of a plea, his breath brushing a tendril of her hair, he asked again, "Stay."

* * *

 **A/N:** Happy Bonkai day, everybody! :)


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